Shattered
by Coengar2
Summary: A sneak attack by the Hentai Horde leaves Ranma shattered while the otheres try to pick up the pieces


Shattered

By Coengar2

A terrible tragedy all but destroys a young man and causes those around him to rethink their lives as they try and help him pick up the pieces of his life and their own.

Disclaimer I do not own the rights to Ranma or any of the major characters in said series.

This story however is mine so I guess I'll have to take the blame for it.

Author's Notes: The author is making an assumption that you, dear reader, are already familiar with the Ranma universe and basic storyline and with who the characters are and what they look like. So I will try my best not to rehash any old info or go into deep character descriptions unless it's for the good of the story.

Part One: And the world shatters

Nabiki Tendo walked along the streets of Nerima early one evening with a smile on her face. Not her usual "I'm going to get the better of you" predatory smirk but instead it was an honest to truly real smile, a small one granted but still a smile. The cause of the smile was the large lump in her right pocket, a lump that was in fact money, 25,000 yen worth of money. It was a hefty amount to be made in one shot and the weight of it in her pocket gave the mercenary girl a feeling of comfort. The fact that it would certainly help pay for the upgrades to her camera was certainly a bonus.

The fact that Nabiki got the money not by a scam or a con or even by extortion but in fact earned it by playing peace maker was just adding to her happiness. She was still replaying the events of the week earlier in her head as she turned down the road and headed towards her house which she saw at the end of the block.

4 days ago: The cracks appear

Seiji Takada was a 3rd year student at Furinken High School with a reputation as being one of the best pitchers on the school baseball team. He was also well known for being a self absorbed jerk with an arrogance that rivaled Tatewaki Kuno but lacking the skills to back it up. He was also one of the leaders of the infamous Hentai Horde that used to attack Akane Tendo on a daily basis in the hopes that by beating her she'd agree to date whoever defeated her.

Of all the Horde members Seiji was the one considered to have the best chance at claiming the girl. He was strong, fast and usually held back in the hopes that Akane would be tired after defeating the others and would make a mistake that he could capitalize on. He was also pretty good when attacking with a baseball bat. It never did occur to him that Kuno would never actually allow anyone who harmed his "Fierce Tigress" to live long enough to date Akane. The days of the Horde however ended when Ranma Saotome showed up.

Ranma had an ego and an attitude streak a mile wide, he was socially inept, rather naïve and more than a tad gullible but he was also a master rank martial artist with skills and abilities that made him look like something out of a comic book.

Not only did he put an end to the Horde, he was constantly being swooned over by the girls at school who would have done 'anything' to be with him had it not been for the three hot babes who had already claimed him as their own, including Akane Tendo.

Seiji always believed that if it weren't for Ranma Saotome's interference he would have been king of the school and he would have scored Akane by now and moved on to fresher pastures. Compared to Ranma, Seiji felt utterly unworthy of the title Jock so he had spent the last year of high school brooding and coming up with countless plans to destroy his enemy, none of which would have worked anyway. Then finally several weeks ago he came up with the perfect plan to use that would leave his hated rival a totally ruined wreck, so after some time gathering up the tools and a surprising number of guys willing to help, most of them being jocks disgraced by Ranma or former Horde members, Seiji was ready to put his plan into action.

2 days ago: Jagged lines

Seiji walked rapidly down the hall on the look out for his target knowing that she had to be somewhere in the school. Then he spotted her sitting by herself at a table in the lunch room and after taking a second to hide a look of disgust on his face and to shore up his courage he approached her.

"Yo Tendo!" he called out at the girl with the brown page boy hair style. "You got a minute?"

"For you Seiji-kun, sure," the girl flashed her infamous smirk and Seiji had to beat down the urge to just slap it off her face. "But only a minute, time is money you know, after the first minute standard rates apply."

"Yeah yeah," Seiji muttered wishing that he could run his plan of revenge without having to deal with the so called Ice Queen but he needed her to help reel in his victim. "Look me and the boys are throwing a little graduation party in a couple of days and while I know me and Saotome aren't exactly buddies and all, I kinda figured that it'd be nice to leave the school with a clean slate you know?"

"So you want me to play peace maker between the jocks and Ranma?" Nabiki wasn't quite sure if she was hearing things correctly.

"Exactly," Seiji nodded "we figure we were all just kinda jealous of him because he was a better athlete and got all the girls chasing after him." Just saying that made Seiji want to vomit. "Maybe I will anyway and I'll aim for the Ice Bitch." He grinned silently to himself as he thought how great it would be to humiliate her like that in front of everyone. "So we just want to show him that we're sorry for everything and that we just want to part if not as friends at least not as enemies."

"I'm impressed Seiji, you almost sound like you mean it." Nabiki grinned "But how do I know that you aren't planning to get Ranma drunk and do something really stupid?"

"Yeah keep grinning stupid bitch." thought Seiji "Look Tendo; in a few months I'm off to college on a ball scholarship, you think I wanna mess that up?" Seiji shot Nabiki one of his famous "melt your heart and make you wanna drop your panties" smiles "Besides, look at how much damage he can do when he's sober, you think I want to be near him if he's drunk?"

Seiji placed his left hand over his heart and held up his right hand in the two fingered Cub Scout salute "I promise that I will make sure that Ranma doesn't touch a drop of alcohol the whole time he's at the party."

Nabiki rolled her eyes "Yeah alright, let's say that I talk to him and convince him of your good intentions, he gets a night of partying." She leveled him a solid stare "What's in it for me?"

Seiji leaned closer and pulled an envelope out of his front pocket "Now to set the hook." He thought as he placed it in front of Nabiki and pulled his hand away.

"You see, it's kinda important to the guys that we leave here with a clean slate so to speak so we took up a collection and we'll pay you 50,000 to play peace maker." He smiled softly as he watched Nabiki pick up the envelope with a gleam in her eye. "Line." He silently smirked "There's 25,000 yen in there now, you can pick up the other 25,000 in two days at the party after you bring Ranma over."

Normally Nabiki is a very level headed person not really given to fits of fancy or day dreams but occasionally when she handles large amounts of money, thoughts of all she can do with it can cloud her judgment, such as in this case.

With thoughts of new purchases dancing in her head she totally failed to noticed the very brief smirk that Seiji gave as she placed the envelope in the pocket of her jumper.

"No problem you just give me a place and a time and he'll be there." She gave Seiji a slight smile "Hell, for 50,000 yen he'll bring the chip and dip."

Seiji gave a real chuckle at that "Naw, he just needs to bring himself is all." Than he took out a pen and a piece of paper and scrawled down the address and the time the party started and passed it to Nabiki then he turned and began to walk away and flashed a thumbs up sign to a fellow jock sitting by the door letting him know that the party was on.

The present (6 hours ago) : Fractures

On the day of the party it only took Nabiki a couple of hours to convince Ranma that he needed to get out of the house, hinting that it was Akane's turn to cook that evening certainly helped. As Nabiki and Ranma walked down the street heading towards the party site they shared some rather pleasant conversation. One of the things that Nabiki had noticed in the last few months was that her earlier opinion of Ranma simply as a brainless jock was in error. In fact, Ranma was very intelligent with a photographic memory and a tactical mind capable of plotting out several different combat options while in the heat of battle.

She had come to understand that Ranma slept through most of the school day simply because it bored him and failed to challenge him. She also admired him for his honesty, his sense of honor and loyalty to those he considered his friends, and given Ranma's ability to forgive just about anything wrong done to him left that a rather long list.

In short, Nabiki was beginning to regret passing Ranma off onto her baby sister when her father announced that he had an agreement with Ranma's father that amounted to an arranged marriage between Ranma and one of the three Tendo sisters. In fact, Nabiki was becoming quite enamored with the pigtailed martial artist and was beginning to formulate plans on claiming Ranma as her own once Akane had finally manage to chase him away with that violent temper of hers.

Soon they found themselves standing before a house at the address that Seiji supplied and Nabiki knocked on the door as Ranma began to contemplate getting the hell out of there. It was only thoughts of Nabiki's wrath that kept him standing on the porch when Seiji opened the door.

"Hey Tendo, Ranma glad you guys made it come on in." Seiji stood off to the side as the two entered the house. "We're just cranking up the grill to cook some burgers. Hey let me get you two something to drink." He headed of towards another room and soon came back balancing three cups, one in his left hand and two in his right which he offered to Nabiki and Ranma.

"See Tendo, just like I promised, nothing alcoholic." Seiji flashed her a smile. "It's only fruit punch. Hey come on in we've all been looking forward to seeing you guys."

Nabiki placed her glass down untouched on a nearby table "Sorry Seiji, I've got business to do and people to see." She watched as Ranma went off into the living room and could hear him being greeted in a loud welcoming way as she turned to Seiji. "I believe I have fulfilled my side of our deal, now about my payment."

Seiji flashed her another smile as he pulled another envelope out of his pocket. "Here you go Nabiki, as promised. You sure you can't stay?" "I hope you choke on it you slut." He growled in his head as Nabiki opened the envelope and counted its contents.

"Sorry no, like I said I'm busy tonight, just dropping off wonderboy." She pocketed the envelope and headed for the door. As she left she called back over her shoulder "Now don't keep him out too late or my sister will come looking for him."

"Yes mother! I'll have him home before he turns into a pumpkin." Seiji called back with a laugh then he closed the door and headed into the kitchen.

As he entered he noticed that the blue pitcher on the counter was nearly empty "Poor Ranma must have been parched, better make him some more." Seiji grinned as he whipped up another pitcher of punch. Everyone at the party had agreed in advanced that the blue pitcher was for Ranma only. "Now for the extra ingredient." He chuckled evilly as he pulled some capsules from a plastic baggy that was placed in a drawer. He popped open the capsules and allowed the powder they contained to fall into the punch and he mixed it all together with a long spoon.

Seiji carried the pitcher into the living room where he found Ranma telling stories of some adventure he had had recently while waving around an empty cup.

"Hey Ranma, let me fill that back up for ya." Seiji grinned as he filled the cup with the punch from the blue pitcher. "You saying that you really ran into bird people?" "Yeah you're just a lying sack of crap ain't ya Saotome." sneered Seiji to himself.

"Oh yeah," Ranma quickly agreed as he emptied his cup in one big swallow "You should have seen them, big ol bird wings and feet on human looking bodies, pretty quick in the air too." Ranma's eyes seemed to blur over for a moment before he shook his head clear and lifted his cup. "This stuff is pretty good, can I have some more?"

"You bet old buddy." Seiji smiled as he refilled Ranma's cup.

After an hour had passed another of the guys stood next to Seiji and whispered while watching Ranma tell some story about a bunch of warrior chicks in China or something. "He's had what 4 pitchers already? You think he's ready?"

"Let's find out." Seiji remarked as he motioned to another guy who promptly accidentally spilled some ice water onto Ranma, changing him into his redheaded girl form.

"Whoa sorry about that dude, I tripped on the rug." The boy said with a shy smile as he noticed that Ranma wore no bra under her red Chinese style shirt.

"Not a problem buddy happens all the time to me." Ranma slurred her words slightly as she waved off the boy's apology, not noticing her body's reaction to the cold water or the guys reactions to her body.

Seiji walked behind Ranma and blew gently in her ear causing the girl to shiver slightly and give out a low soft moan. "Oh yeah," Seiji grinned "She's more than ready."

Ranma's eyes crossed slightly as she toppled forward and was caught by several sets of eager hands. She didn't notice the hands removing her clothes, noting only the sudden waves of pleasure washing over her. She also didn't notice the guys who were locking the doors and drawing the curtains on the windows.

Several of the guys held the naked Ranma upright as the others undressed. Meanwhile some the guys were reaching behind the sofa and in the closets and were drawing out ball bats, metal pipes and other blunt objects. The leader of which looked over at Seiji and said with an evil grin, "After you have your fun, we'll have ours."

The present (3 hours afterwards) : the pieces fall

Angie Donnelley sat in the ER doctors lounge at Nerima General. An American by nationality she was working in the hospital as part of a resident exchange program. Currently a Japanese doctor was working in Angie's ER at a hospital in Chicago. Angie was currently talking to Dr. Ami Inohara the head of Trauma medicine at the hospital while the two worked the late shift together.

"I tell you Ami, sushi in America is nothing like the real stuff here in Japan." Angie was currently rambling on about whatever had become her favorite thing about being in Japan today. To say that Angie was totally in love with all things Japanese would be quite an understatement and she had already had several conversations with Ami about getting on staff permanently at the hospital. Angie would always say in later years that her time at Nerima General were some of the best times of her life and would say that what she experienced in the next few hours were some of the worst.

As Angie continued babbling about sushi Ami sipped her coffee having learned quickly to tune the blond haired girl out when she got into these rants. Ami was wondering at how calm things had been going tonight when her thoughts were interrupted by a somber looking nurse who entered the lounge and tapped the doctor on her shoulder.

"Dr. Inohara, we have a Code Silence on its way, ETA is about 10 minutes." The nurse said in a quiet voice which caused Angie to stop talking as the pained look crossed her friend's face."

"Thank you Aya. Please direct the ambulance to bay 3." Dr. Inohara said as she and Angie got up and headed for bay 3. "And I want privacy screens all the way from the bay to room 6 and please assemble a team and have them meet me in the receiving bay."

"Right away Doctor." The nurse scrambled off to get everything ready.

"Hey Ami," Angie called over to her friend who turned to look at her. "What's a code silence?"

Dr. Inohara had a sad look on her face as she answered the question "It means that the ambulance is bringing in a sexual assault victim."

The two doctors continued down the hallway and Angie watched as nurses and orderlies were setting up large privacy screens along the length of the hallway leading towards an exam room. As they entered the receiving bay Angie saw that everyone assembled to receive the patient was a woman, none of them looked at ease.

"In Japan Angie, a rape is more than just an attack on a woman." Ami answered the unasked questions she saw in the American girl's eyes "It is an attack on her family, her clan. To be raped is considered an act of shame for the victim."

"Wait." Angie said in disbelief "Are you telling me that the country that gave the world bukkake and shibari still considers rape to be the fault of the victim?"

"Perhaps not as badly as it once did," Dr. Inohara admitted "But it is still something that many do not want to talk about." She gestured at the screens and the all women staff "The screens help hide her identity from casual lookers thus sparing her family the shame. We use an all female team to give the patient some dignity."

Aya the nurse reappeared and again spoke to Dr. Inohara "Doctor, the police say that a crime scene investigator is on her way and we are to consider the patient as unprocessed evidence."

"Kuso!" swore Dr. Inohara harshly

"Unprocessed Evidence?? What's that mean?" Angie demanded but took a step back when she saw the anger in Ami's eyes.

"It means that they haven't taken any samples from her and unless her injuries are life threatening, we can't touch her until they do without the risk of tampering with any evidence."

All eyes turned to the bay room doors as the ambulance backed in and two medics jumped out and began to remove the patient from the vehicle. Everyone on the team noticed that neither medic was a woman which was why the girl was considered unprocessed.

"Doc," one of the medics looked up at Dr. Inohara with red rimmed eyes "Your team better brace themselves, she's in bad shape, stable but bad."

Ami nodded but even she gasped as they wheeled the girl into the room. Even at first glance, Ami could tell that the girl had taken massive amounts of damage.

The stunned team followed the medics as they wheeled the girl into the room that Aya led them too. When they transferred the girl to the exam gurney from the stretcher, her covering sheet fell off of her causing everyone to gasp at her injuries.

Dr. Inohara quickly stepped forward to take control before things got out of hand. "Ok Sakamoto, what have we got?" she addressed one of the medics who pulled out a note book and began to read off his notes.

"We have a female approximately 17 years of age. She was found lying naked leaning up against a newspaper stand near an intersection downtown. She appears to have wounds.." Sakamoto suddenly stopped and wiped his eyes "Ah hell Doc, someone beat her bad, she's bruised just about everywhere, she shows signs of rape, she has several broken bones in every extremity, her pupils are fixed with one blown wide open and the other a pin point so I'd say she probably has severe head trauma and I don't even want to think about why someone stuck all those pins through her nipples."

The other medic turned to Dr. Inohara "I've been a medic in Tokyo for over 10 years now and I've seen everything, Bodies pulled from the harbor or from burned out cars. I've seen murders so gruesome I couldn't eat for days afterwards. But this." he waved a hand at the girl lying on the gurney 'This was more than just a rape and a beating. This was torture pure and simple."

Dr. Inohara looked around at her team "I want everything ready so when the police clear her for treatment we can start on her right away." Ami turned to look at Angie and noticed the shocked look on her face. "Dr. Donnelly, I want you to look, but do not touch the patient and tell me what you think her injuries are. Please start at her head."

Ami took out a notebook and began to write as Angie gave her assessment. "Let's see. There's blood on her pillow so there is probably at least a scalp laceration. Judging by the swelling and bruise patterns I'd say that both her eyes sockets are broken and the way her left eye is blood shot and bruised it looks like someone tried to gouge out her eye."

Angie took a deep breath and then continued "Her nose is broke and so is her jaw, I'd say she going to need to have it surgically reconstructed. I see bruising on her throat that seems to indicate that she was strangled at some point and there are marks on her wrists and ankles that suggest that she may have been tied up at one point."

Tears began to trail down the shaken doctor's face as she went on "There appear to be breaks in the major bones of both her arms and legs and giving the bruising on her chest and sides, I'd consider the possibility of broken ribs as well. She shows signs of torture and I count 5 no 6 needles piercing each of her nipples, judging by the blood I'd say her belly button was recently pierced as were her labial lips. I count multiple sets of bite marks, scratches, and several of what appear to be cigarette burns."

Angie's voice finally began to crack "The patient shows signs of multiple penetrations vaginally, anally and if that is what I think it is crusted around her mouth, I'd say she was orally raped as well. She has 2nd and 3rd degree burns in her pubic area. Finally judging by the amount of blood in her pubic area I'd say it's a good bet that she has sustained tearing in both her vagina and rectum and it is quite likely that she was a virgin at the time of the attack."

Angie finally looked up as she finished and saw tears running down the faces of just about everyone else in the room.

Dr. Inohara stepped up and placed a comforting hand on Angie's shoulder. "Thank you that was fine." She looked at the rest of the assembled team. "I want a blood draw so we can send it for a blood tox test and we should probably pump her stomach, I'm sure the CSI people are going to want to analyze it."

Finally the CSI officer appeared and the girl was processed. Swabs and samples were taken as were multiple photos documenting her many injuries. Her fingernails were scraped and impressions were made of the various bite wounds covering her body. After an agonizing length of time, the girl was cleared and the team went to work.

As the nurses began to clean the girl up and tend to her more serious wounds one of the nurses suddenly stopped and blinked as she said in a low voice "I know this girl."

The rest of the team, including the two doctors looked up at the speaker.

"It's hard to tell at first due to all the swellings and facial injuries but with the red hair and those blue eyes, this girl is Saotome Ranma."

"Are you sure?" Dr. Inohara asked.

"Oh yeah, she was in here a few weeks ago to have a dislocated shoulder set back in place. She didn't even use any painkillers, we just popped it back in place." The nurse shook her head sadly as she used an alcohol pad to clean the blood off of Ranma's stomach. "She was a really nice girl, very friendly and told some pretty interesting stories."

"Saotome? Saotome? I've heard that name as well." Another nurse remarked as she gingerly felt the bones in Ranma's left leg "definite breakage of all major bones in this leg, as I recall she is some kind of high level martial artist. A real world league fighter."

Angie looked incredulous "She's that good and someone still did this to her?" she pointed at the various injuries as she faced Ami 'I bet that blood tox is gonna come back positive in a big way."

"I'm afraid I must agree with you on that." Ami nodded than called out of the room "Aya! Come here a second."

The nurse appeared quickly and stood at the doorway. "Yes doctor?"

Dr. Inohara walked over to Aya and spoke in a low whisper to prevent being overheard. "The patient's name is Saotome Ranma and she was apparently in the ER a few weeks ago so is a patient of record, see if you can find her file."

"Right away, Dr. Inohara." Aya hurried off to look for Ranma's record as Dr. Inohara turned back to the team who were finishing up cleaning Ranma's body.

"As soon as she's cleaned up I want her sent to x-ray, tell them I want a full body series and I want it yesterday." The doctor spoke to another nurse "Minami, have a ultrasound tech standing by for when she gets back from X-ray in case the films show any signs of internal bleeding." The nurse left the room to call the sonogram tech.

Ami Inohara watched as the nurses pushed Ranma out of the ER and on her way to X-ray. As the ER doors closed she turned to Angie and said with a sigh "I need a cigarette."

"Sounds like a plan." Angie agreed, her cheeks still marked by tear tracks.

The two doctors notified the front desk that they were going off the floor for a few minutes then they headed outside through a side door.

"You alright Angie?" Ami asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Yeah, I can't believe how brutal that was." Angie replied, the stunned tone evident in her voice.

Ami nodded her head as she lit up a cigarette "I agree, that was probably the worse code silence I've ever had to deal with. I have to agree with Sakamoto, this was no ordinary attack. Someone was trying to destroy the girl, physically and psychologically."

Both girls stood there in silence for a while, Ami taking an occasional drag on her cigarette and Angie still trying to cope with what she had just seen. Aya poked her head out of the door and upon spotting Dr. Inohara went over to speak with her.

"I found the girl's file, her primary physician is listed as a Dr. Tofu Ono." Aya passed a note to Ami, "Here is his contact number I figured that you might want to make the call."

"You're too kind Aya." Ami's voice dripped with playful sarcasm as she took the phone number and went back inside to make the call."

The present (4 hours afterwards, 10:25pm) : Slivers

The phone on the bedside table continued ringing despite Tofu's repeated attempts to ignore it. It finally clicked in his sleep fogged head that any call at this time was probably important so he reached over and lifted up the receiver.

"Hello? Dr. Ono speaking." He said as he sat up and wiped the sleep from his eyes.

"Good Evening Dr. Ono, please forgive me if I disturbed you." Ami continued as Tofu mumbled some kind of reply about her not disturbing anything. "My name is Dr. Ami Inohara and I am the chief ER doctor at Nerima General."

This information slowly registered in Tofu's mind and quickly brought it up to speed.

Dr. Inohara continued "I'm calling because a patient of yours was brought into the ER tonight in rather bad shape."

"A patient? May I ask which one?" Tofu was finally wide awake and was wondering which of his patients could possibly be in the ER this late at night.

"A girl named Saotome Ranma."

At the mention of Ranma's name Tofu bolted upright onto his feet his voice thick with worried concern as he noted that Dr. Inohara called Ranma a girl. "Is she alright? You said she was in bad shape, how bad are her injuries?"

"Ummm, I think it would best if you were to come down to the hospital as soon as possible."

Dr. Inohara's tone of voice sent the hairs on Tofu's neck standing on edge.

"I see," he said in a slow response "Give me a few minutes to get dressed and to run downstairs and grab Ranma's file and I'll be there."

Ami was preparing to hang up when she heard Dr. Ono's voice call out urgently. "Was there something else Dr. Ono?"

"Ah yes, Dr. Inohara." Tofu answered "Ranma has a condition that causes her to react very badly to hot liquids upon contact with her skin, so I must request that all steps be taken to prevent any risk of exposure for her."

"Reacts to hot liquids you say?" Ami inquired.

"Yes, she blisters very easily." He responded "she breaks out in very painful blisters even when exposed to warm water."

"Thank you for the warning, I'll make a note in her chart here and will advise the staff of it as well." Ami assured Tofu.

"Very good." He answered "By the way, since I'm close friends with Ranma's family, I'll notify them of Ranma's situation after I go over her assessment with you."

"That'll be fine." Ami replied thankful for not having to be the one to call the poor girl's family. "I'll see you here shortly then."

At that the doctors hung up their phones and Tofu hurriedly got dressed and went to his clinic downstairs before he headed out to his car and drove off towards the hospital. The whole time Tofu's thoughts were filled with worry as he pondered what could possibly harm Ranma enough to result in Tofu receiving a personal call from the head of the ER department.

As Dr. Inohara hung up the phone she noticed Aya approaching with several sheets of paper clutched in her hands. She watched as Aya stood before her, shuffling her feet with an upset look on her face.

"What's wrong Aya?" Ami asked the nurse with concern.

"I feel like some dark messenger," Aya began; Ami could see the tears beginning to form in her eyes. "All I ever bring is bad news about that poor girl. Here are the blood tox results and a preliminary report on the content's of her stomach."

Aya handed the papers over to Dr. Inohara who began to look them over.

"My God, Doctor," Aya said in an awed voice "With the amount of drugs in her system that girl should be dead."

"Indeed, no wonder she was so unresponsive." Ami switched over and began looking over the other sheet "Kuso, looks like Angie was right about what was crusted around the girl's mouth."

Ami looked up and passed the sheets back to Aya "Better fax a copy of these over to Nerima CSI ASAP."

"Right away, Doctor." Aya responded and she scurried down the hallway to comply.

Ami Inohara and Angie Donnelly were looking over the first series of Ranma's x-rays when Dr. Tofu entered the ER carrying a rather thick folder under one arm. Pleasantries were exchanged between the three and they began to go over everything they had covering Ranma's injuries. Ami pointed to the series of x-rays currently displayed on the light board, x-rays of Ranma's skull.

"As you can see Dr. Ono," Ami was pointing to areas on several of the x-rays. "Ranma has at least three separate fractures of her skull here, here and finally here, definitely caused by blunt force." She then pointed to an x-ray showing a full frontal view.

"And as you can see here Dr. Ono," Ami began as she again pointed to several areas "Both of Ranma's eye sockets are broken, her nose is broken but it's her jaw that really concerns me."

Ami pulls out an x-ray showing a close up of Ranma's jaw and places it on the light board. "Her jaw is pretty much shattered; she is definitely going to require surgery to repair the damage. Fortunately there is enough of a solid jaw left on this side of her face that we can use it as an anchor to wire her jaw shut to allow it to heal."

Dr. Inohara turned to look at Tofu "We have a surgical team ready to do the operation even as we speak, we just need parental consent. Although we could classify this as a medical emergency and just go ahead and start."

"No we are definitely going to need parental consent for this." Tofu interrupted as he reached over to Ranma's file and pulled out two photographs placing them side by side on a nearby counter. "Ranma requires special considerations before we can do anything like that."

Ami and Angie looked over at the photos and noticed that they were of two teenagers. The first photo was of a young man with black hair pulled into a pigtail.

"Oh he's pretty cute." Angie said with a grin

The other photo was of a red haired girl with a pigtail. Ami recognized her as her patient. She also noticed that the two had the same blue eyes and hair style.

"That's Ranma." Ami stated as she pointed to the red headed girl, than she pointed to the photo of the boy "That must be her brother, judging by the similar features I'd say that they are twins."

Angie looked over at Ranma's girl form photo. "Wow she was beautiful."

Ami looked up at her and gave her a glare "And she is still beautiful, she will just need some help getting it back to the way it was."

Angie looked away at the scolding, embarrassment blushing across her cheeks.

Tofu gave a small smirk as he looked at Dr. Inohara. "Actually Doctor, you're wrong. They are both of Ranma."

He chuckled as he watched the disbelief appear on their faces, he then went on to explain about Chinese curses and water caused shape shifts. Needless to say, they really didn't believe a word of it.

Finally Tofu offered to show them proof that the curse was real and went off to place a phone call to a certain Amazon Elder.

The ringing of the phone in the darkened restaurant was answered by a voice who was certainly not pleased.

"Hello, sorry we're closed no we do not deliver this late at night and no, Shampoo will not go out on a date with you." Cologne prepared to slam the phone down when she recognized a familiar voice with an almost desperate plea trying to get her attention.

"Dr. Tofu, why are you calling this late in the evening?" Cologne inquired.

"I'm truly sorry Elder Cologne but I need your help with a couple of things." Cologne could hear the worried tone to his voice.

"Yes, go on. I'm listening." The Elder was curious as to what would cause the good doctor to be calling her so late.

"Well, first off," Tofu began to explain "I need to know what effects a Jusenkyo curse will have on broken bones."

"Where are you Tofu that you would need such information?" Cologne asked in a stern tone. Something about the question and the tone Tofu had asked it in had made the Elder concerned.

Tofu took a deep breath before speaking "I'm in the ER of Nerima General hospital."

Cologne took her own deep breath "What has happened to Son-in-law this time?" She just knew that anything that was bad enough to have Dr. Tofu calling her in the middle of the night probably involved Ranma.

"I can't mention it over the phone Elder." Tofu admitted confirming Cologne's suspicion that Ranma was involved somehow.

"I understand. Now what was the other thing I can help you with tonight?" Cologne managed to hide the worry in her voice, Ranma must be truly hurt for Tofu to be calling her.

"I'm having trouble convincing the staff here of the reality of the curse and I was wondering if you could ask Shampoo or Mousse to come with you and demonstrate it for them." Tofu told her "I need them to accept it before they accidentally injure Ranma any further."

"Not a problem, my great granddaughter will be glad to help her husband." Cologne said with a slight grin. "Indeed should Ranma change form while having any unhealed bones, the damage it would cause him would be severe."

"That's what I thought." Tofu replied. "If you could please hurry though Ranma is in bad shape."

"Oh and Elder Cologne." Tofu spoke up "If you have anyway to lock Ranma's curse, perhaps even permanently, please bring them."

That came as a shock to the Elder "I will see what I can do Dr. Tofu. Surely Ranma's injuries can not be that severe."

"You'll see when you get here." Cologne took note of the sadden tone of Tofu's voice. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must call Ranma's family."

Cologne felt something she hadn't expected, she felt concern for Ranma and even a touch of fear about how severe his injuries must actually be. She hung up the phone and went to awaken Shampoo, soon the two Amazons headed off towards the hospital with Mousse trailing unseen behind them.

The Present (5+ hours afterwards 11:57pm) Deep cuts

Tofu stood shuffling his feet impatiently as he listened to the sound of a phone ringing on the other end of the line. He knew that every second was critical because Dr. Inohara was very serious about listing Ranma as a medical emergency and going ahead with the surgery needed to repair the martial artist's shattered jaw. He also understood that the doctor did not believe that Ranma had a shape shifting curse nor did she understand why Tofu kept insisting that having the surgery would cause her patient more injury. Just as he was running these thoughts through his mind he heard the phone pick up and an unbelievably perky voice answer.

"Moshi moshi,Tendo residence and dojo." Tofu recognized the voice as coming from his beloved Kasumi and although his glasses started to fog over, the immediate emergency helped him get himself under control.

"Good evening Kasumi, it is Dr. Tofu." He managed to say without stuttering, a fact that was not lost on Kasumi.

"What a pleasant surprise to hear from you Tofu." Kasumi beamed happily. "Although it is rather late for a social call."

"I know it is late but this is an emergency Kasumi. Are Ranma's parents still staying at the dojo?" Kasumi noted to urgent tone in his voice.

'Yes they are. Tofu, what is wrong?" Kasumi began to worry, something bad had happened to Ranma. She figured it might be something like that since he hadn't come home yet.

"Kasumi, I need you to tell them to come to Nerima General Hospital as quick as they can." Tofu responded then he paused for a second before continuing "It's Ranma she's very badly injured and I need to talk to her parents before the hospital staff take her to surgery."

Kasumi noted that Tofu only called Ranma a girl then it dawned on her that he had also mentioned surgery.

"I'll wake them up and we'll be there as fast as we can." Kasumi said.

"Good, take a taxi I'll help pay for it." Tofu told her as he prepared to hang up "Just get here quickly!"

With that Tofu hung up leaving a stunned Kasumi staring at the phone before she too hung up and ran back upstairs to get everyone ready to go to the hospital.

Kasumi approached the door to the guest room that was currently being used by Genma and Nodoka Saotome and began pounding loudly on the door. In the several minutes of pounding that it took to get a response from the Saotomes Kasumi became aware that her father, youngest sister Akane and surprisingly enough her middle sister Nabiki were awakened by the loud noise and had wandered out into the hallway to determine what was causing all the ruckus.

Finally the guest room opened and there stood the red haired matron of the Saotome family, Nodoka, who was tying her robe closed as she opened the door with a look of annoyance on her face.

"Kasumi Tendo, what is the meaning of making such a fuss this late at night?" Nodoka demanded

"Forgive me Auntie," Kasumi began to explain "Dr. Tofu just called and said that Ranma is in the hospital and that they needed your consent before they could take her into surgery."

"Ranma is in the hospital?" these words were called out nearly simultaneously by everyone standing in the hallway, except for Genma who was still snoring peacefully.

"Did you say surgery, Kasumi?" Nodoka asked now fully awake "And why are you calling Ranma 'her'?"

"Yes Auntie, Dr. Tofu said that Ranma is very badly injured although he wouldn't say just how badly." Kasumi turned to face everyone before she went on "Apparently Ranma is currently in his girl form."

Kasumi turned and quickly headed to her bedroom to begin changing clothes. "Now hurry up, I'll call for a couple of taxis as soon as I get changed."

"Already done." Nabiki called out as she closed her cell phone "They should be here in ten minutes." She too closed her door and began to change clothes.

"I don't know what all the fuss is about." Akane mumbled as she went to change into her street clothes "Ranma is always getting hurt, it couldn't be all that bad."

It had taken Nodoka a few minutes of shaking and one jab in the behind with the tip of a katana to get Genma roused and dressed by the time that the taxis arrived. Both families loaded up and were soon on their way to the hospital.

The families soon reached the hospital ER and had entered the lobby area enmass only to draw up suddenly by the sight of Cologne and Shampoo already sitting there.

"What are you doing here?" Akane snarled at Shampoo who simply smiled as she pulled a large towel wrapped around her shoulders a little closer.

"Dr. Tofu called us down here to help prove to the staff that Jusenkyo curses were in fact real and to discuss some of the dangers that could occur if they weren't handled in certain ways." Cologne answered as she looked at Nodoka.

Nodoka returned the look that Cologne had sent her way than her shoulders slumped a bit as she asked the aged Elder. "Do you know what's happened to Ranma?"

"No Dear, they wouldn't tell me." Cologne admitted as she ignored Akane eyeing daggers at a rather smug looking Shampoo "But judging by some of the questions they asked I'd say that Ranma has some severe bone breakage."

Cologne made small talk with Nodoka trying to help her stay calm, figuring that it wouldn't hurt Shampoo's cause to try to get in good with son-in-law's mother. Kasumi and Nabiki managed to steer a furious Akane to a chair away from Shampoo and were working at calming her down when Tofu and a woman with short black hair, glasses and wearing a white lab coat approached from beyond the ER unit doors.

At the site of the two doctors everyone rushed and surrounded them leaving Dr. Inohara slightly bewildered while Tofu was expecting something like that and was barely phased at all. It was only the fact that he realized that Kasumi had become pressed up against him by the mob as they asked questions and demanded answers that caused any kind of reaction in the doctor, his glasses started to fog.

It was only the loud cracking sound made by Cologne smacking the floor with the end of her staff that caused the mob to move back enough to allow Tofu a chance to regain his composure.

"Now stop all this nonsense!" Cologne cried out, "How do you expect the good doctors to tell us what Ranma's condition is if you won't let them speak?"

At this everyone became subdued and a few even looked guiltily at the floor. Convinced that everyone would now behave themselves Cologne looked up at the two doctors and said in an almost commanding voice that only an Amazon matriarch can have.

"You may precede doctors." Cologne than hopped over and took a seat next to Nodoka who was grateful that someone could get the rowdy group under control.

Tofu stepped up and spoke to Nodoka and Genma directly "Ranma was brought in earlier tonight with a multitude of injuries, most of them severe." Tofu pulled out an x-ray and held it up so everyone could see and he pointed to the obviously shattered remains of Ranma's jaw. "As you can see, Ranma's jaw has sustained severe damage and we have a team standing by ready to start reconstruction surgery."

"So what is the problem?" Nodoka asked in a puzzled voice "If it is a matter of parental consent, you know I will allow it."

Tofu reached out and stopped Dr. Inohara before she could go tell them to start the procedure than he looked back at Nodoka. "Ranma's curse does complicate matters. As you know when Ranma changes gender he gains or loses height, weight and body mass depending on which form he is in. Ranma is currently in female form and that's the problem."

"Why is that a problem?" Genma asked "Just splash the boy with some hot water and he'll return to being a proper man again."

"You fool of a male!" Cologne smacked her staff on top of Genma's head "Were Ranma to change gender with this much bone mass floating free in his face, the enlarging bone fragments would cause major damage and in all probability leave the boy disfigured for life if not kill him out right."

Dr. Inohara spoke up "The Elder is right. At first I didn't believe in the curse but after having seen it demonstrated," she pointed over towards Shampoo who smiled as she continued to dry off with her towel. "I do know that the damage would be very substantial."

"So how will you fix it?" Nodoka inquired as she shot a hard glare at her husband.

Tofu took over the explanations at this point. "There are two ways. One; we can use a kind of organic glue to try to rebuild her jaw line. It'll take extra time to heal unfortunately and will never be as strong as the solid jaw originally was." Tofu shook his head "And we don't know how it would stand up to the stress of Ranma's gender changing but should allow him to change back and forth perhaps with additional treatments to help reinforce the glue periodically."

Tofu looked directly at Genma "With Ranma's face in such a weakened condition, one solid punch would most likely be fatal. Ranma can never fight or spar again."

That caused everyone to gasp in surprise and caused Genma to slump down into a nearby chair.

"The boy is ruined now. He's useless if he can't fight." Genma was loudly moaning to himself not aware of the angry looks being sent his way by the rest of the group.

"What is the other way to repair the damage Doctor?" asked Kasumi.

"We go in and rebuild her jaw with the glue then reinforce it with titanium plates and screws." Dr. Inohara explained "It will make the jaw line stronger and more resilient."

Genma looked up at the doctors. "Will the boy be able to fight?"

Tofu shook his head "Not in any way stronger than a simple spar. There is one more problem with repairing Ranma's jaw with this method."

"What other problem?" Genma asked figuring it couldn't get any worse.

Nabiki spoke up "Think about it, if Ranma can't change gender with bone fragments floating in his head how do you expect him to do it with a face full of metal?"

Seeing the lack of understanding in most everyone's faces Nabiki sighed and continued "If they use metal parts to repair Ranma's jaw, he'll never be able to switch genders again. You'll have a daughter from now on not a son."

This news caused quite a bit of commotion.

"Are you sure that is what will happen Dr. Inohara?" Nodoka asked.

"Yes, if we use the metal we'll have to lock you son's um daughter's curse permanently." She looked at Tofu who simply nodded "As it is we are recommending that the curse be locked for as long as it takes for Ranma to fully recover."

"How long with that be?" Genma asked dreading the answer.

"Giving how fast Ranma normally heals I'd say 6 months at the earliest, most likely longer." Tofu replied. "I know this is a lot to take in at one time but we really need to have a decision immediately, Ranma is under heavy sedation but his body will adapt to it before too much longer."

Genma stood up and declared "My son is a manly son and should remain one. I say only use the glue, the boy will just have to learn to protect his head is all."

He then crossed his arms and stood with an arrogant look on his face. "If the boy is truly a martial artist than this will be no problem for him after all a martial artist's life is filled with peril."

No sooner had the last words left his mouth than his head rocked backwards from the impact of a right hook from a very angry Nodoka.

"How dare you say such things, Genma?" Nodoka practically yelled "First you steal my son away from me for 10 years to go on some stupid training trip that seems to equate as nothing more than torture. Than you dare hide him from me for another year due to that stupid seppuku contract you made me agree to."

Nodoka was backing a terrified looking Genma back against the wall and Dr. Inohara was seriously considering calling for a strong sedative for the woman.

"Now when I finally have him back in my life you wish to take him away from me again?" Nodoka was screaming in his face now.

"But Dearest," Genma managed to say with a shaky voice "To be the best the boy must make sacrifices for his Art."

"But I've already made enough sacrifices for the Art husband!" sneered Nodoka "Besides, thanks to you Genma my son has already sacrificed his manhood."

Nodoka turned as Genma slid to the floor. She walked up to the doctors and in a voice filled with barely contained anger said "I don't care if you have to replace her whole skull, you just fix my daughter so that she can return back home with me."

Tofu and Inohara nodded and as Inohara left the area she motioned to Cologne to follow. "Come this way Elder, if you are to lock Ranma's curse. But brace yourself, it isn't pretty."

"I'm sure I've seen worse Child." Cologne replied grimly as she pogo'd behind the doctor towards the waiting Ranma.

Tofu watched as the two passed through the doors to the ER than he turned back to the Saotome's "Nodoka, Genma I need you to come with me, Ranma has more injuries we need to discuss." He started to lead the two shaken parents to a small consultation room then he gestured to Kasumi "I think you may want to hear this as well since Ranma will require constant looking after for a while."

Akane stood with her hands on her hips and called out in an annoyed voice "Why does she get to go and not me?" she demanded "I'm that baka's fiancée after all."

Tofu escorted the Saotome's and Kasumi through the door of the consultation room as he looked over at Akane's defiant posture. "Because I doubt that you can handle this Akane, I seriously doubt any of us can." With that he closed the door leaving Akane and everyone else standing there with stunned looks on their faces.

After everyone in the room sat down Tofu began to explain all of Ranma's various injuries, detailing every broken bone and what had been done to fix them. As he explained the injuries Kasumi and the Saotome's grew paler and paler.

"But the boy is a well trained fighter," Genma wailed "even in his weak girl form, how could he have taken such damage?"

Genma failed to notice that angry looks given to him by Kasumi and Nodoka and instead focused on Tofu as he began his explanation.

"Well," Tofu began "When Ranma was brought in the ER the staff reported that even given an intense state of shock due to the severity of her injuries she was totally unresponsive."

Tofu reached down and picked up a sheet of paper that was lying on the table with the rest of Ranma's file. "Seeing that Ranma failed to even react to a pain stimulus Dr. Inohara ordered a Blood toxin test." He showed the paper to everyone at the desk and continued "As you can see, the test came back indicating that Ranma had a rather large amount of an unknown drug in her system."

As the Saotome's and Kasumi's eyes widened at the news Dr. Ono went on "To be honest, with this high of a blood toxin level, if this were anyone other than Ranma, they'd be dead of an overdose. Even so, it was still a very close call." Tofu placed the paper back down on the desk. "The ER staff also pumped Ranma's stomach and discovered that she had consumed a rather large amount of fruit punch, that was probably how the drug got into her system."

Genma looked confused "So you are saying that someone drugged Ranma, turned him into a girl and then beat the hell out of him?"

Tofu cast a brief embarrassed look at both Nodoka and Kasumi before he continued. "No, they did something else to Ranma probably before the beating."

At that Nodoka paled and Kasumi gasped and covered her mouth as it dawned on them what Tofu was implying.

Nodoka asked in a shaky voice "You said 'They' Doctor, there was more than one?"

Tofu nodded "In the ER they found evidence of at least 6 attackers though there are probably more given the amount of DNA evidence recovered."

This news brought another round of gasps from the women in the room while things finally clicked in Genma's head and he figured out what the women and Tofu were talking about.

He stood up and roared in an angry voice "Are you telling me that someone raped the boy?!!" The veins stood out on Genma's forehead as his rant continued "I doubt that! I trained the boy better than that! It would take more than some drug to allow the boy to let such an abomination happen to him!"

Genma was building up a good head of steam for his ranting when Tofu's hand suddenly lashed out poking several spots on Genma's body causing him to slump back into his chair, unable to move or talk. Tofu leaned over the desk and got right into Genma's grimacing face.

"Look Mr. Saotome, face the truth right now!" He held up the file on his desk and waved it at Genma "Someone set Ranma up, they must have because you're right, he is too good to fall for something like this outright."

Tofu slammed the file back down on the desk as he continued glaring at Genma "They lured him into thinking that he was safe. They filled him full of drug laced fruit punch and when the drugs had taken Ranma over they changed him into his girl form. Then they proceeded to RAPE her." Tofu emphasized the word Rape, "Than as if humiliating her wasn't enough they beat the helpless girl, they tortured her and when they were through they left her lying naked on a street corner where a passerby found her and called for an ambulance."

Tofu sat back down in his chair still glaring at Genma who was beginning to recover from the pressure points that the doctor had used on him. The girls were staring at the doctor in mute disbelief neither able to recall seeing him so angry before.

Genma sat there cursing to himself at how the boy was ruined. "All those years wasted, all the careful training I gave the boy for nothing. All the gentle grooming and what do I have to show for it? Nothing!!" Genma wailed but was suddenly silenced by the bare edge of a katana resting against his throat.

"You are right Husband," Nodoka sneered the word husband as she drew her face in close to his now paler than white face. "You will have nothing should you continue this manner of speaking."

"I know what kind of poor husband you are but are you really so poor a father?" Nodoka asked in an angry voice

"What do you mean No-chan? I've tried to be a good father," Genma protested 'Did I not train the boy to be the best? Have I not made him the manly man you always wanted? Did I not arrange a good marriage for the boy?"

Nodoka nodded "It is true, Ranma is a very skilled martial artist and she has more than met any manly requirements that I may have in either of her forms. However judging by what I have been observing the last few months I do not think that the youngest Tendo girl is an appropriate choice of wife for Ranma." Nodoka gave a grim smile "Of course due to our daughter's condition I believe any marriage arrangement is now a moot point."

"Nonsense!" Genma roared again "Ranma will marry Akane and the schools will be joined!"

"Excuse me Uncle Saotome," Kasumi spoke up "But how will they manage that given that Ranma is now locked as a female forever? Japan does not recognize same sex marriages."

"A small detail easily taken care of." Genma said with confidence.

Nodoka stood up next to Genma and rested the tip of her katana right up against his nose and leaned into it just enough to draw a drop of blood as she spoke softly to her once again quivering husband "See here Genma, there will be no more talk of arranged marriages for Ranma and before you dare interrupt me with your babblings you have still failed to prove to me that you are fit to be our daughter's father."

"But No-chan, I've already given you several things that I have done for the boy, what else do you need?" he pleaded as he watch the blood drop slide down the length of the blade.

Nodoka sighed as she wiped her blade on Genma's gi, "Have you noticed husband that not once during this little fit of yours have you called Ranma your son? She looked at him with deep sadness in her eyes "How can you claim to be her father when you can't even claim her as your child?"

Genma slid back down in his chair as if the weight of the world had suddenly dropped onto his shoulders as Nodoka turned to face Dr. Tofu once more.

"Tell me Dr. Ono, What will Ranma's condition be when she is released and what should we expect?"

Tofu picked up another sheet of paper and cleared his throat as he began "Well to start with Ranma will have casts on both of her legs as well as her arms and due to her broken ribs and the cracked vertebrae in her lower spine she has been fitted with a full torso support brace. Fortunately her neck was not injured so we agreed to forego fitting her with a halo despite her concussions; instead we are going to use a C-collar and a padded helmet, similar to one amateur boxers use. So she will have almost no mobility and will be pretty much helpless. As much as she will hate it, we will leave her catheter in place for a while at least so that we can monitor her urine output for possible blood. Needless to say she will require a special medical bed as we are also going to require she be put in traction to make sure that all the breaks heal as cleanly as possible. Of course she will require several weeks in the hospital before her injuries will be stable enough to allow us to transfer her home"

Tofu went on "Ranma's jaw will be wired shut for a while so everything she eats will have to be liquid." Tofu shot everyone a hard glare "Under NO circumstances is Akane to cook for Ranma, understand?"

Even Genma shook his head in agreement to that, Akane's cooking would probably be fatal in Ranma's weakened condition.

"Ranma should probably have at least one part time nurse to help show everyone what to do for Ranma." Tofu put his fingertips together and looked over the top of them as he continued "In a couple of months there are a few tests that will need to be done on Ranma."

He continued before anyone asked "Given that part of her torture seemed to involve human bite marks and needles." Everyone shivered as they recalled that part of the discussion "Ranma will need to be tested for Hepatitis B. Ranma will also have to be tested soon for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy."

This roused Genma again "Are you implying that the boy, I mean girl may be pregnant?" Genma noticed the disapproving look from his wife at his slip up.

"Not necessarily, it is simply standard procedure in these kinds of cases." Tofu calmed Genma down "Better to be sure now than be surprised later."

Genma harrumphed but made no other comment. After going over a few other details concerning Ranma's condition and care Tofu stood and lead the others to the door to return them to the waiting area.

Kasumi stopped with her hand on the door knob and turned to look at Tofu. "Dr. Tofu, you mentioned that a drug was used on Ranma, do you know what drug it was? In case there are side effects."

Tofu shook his head "Unfortunately the hospital database couldn't identify it so we sent samples over to the Nerima PD in the hopes that they could."

With that everyone rejoined those still waiting in the waiting area including a disturbed looking Cologne. Between the look on Cologne's wrinkled face and the looks on the Saotome's and Kasumi's faces everyone else figured that whatever had happened to Ranma was a lot worse than they were expecting.

Tofu looked at his watch as he walked over to the group and said "Ranma will be in surgery for a while yet, perhaps you might like to go and get some rest or some tea at the least?"

Nodoka shook her head "No thank you doctor, OUR place," she reached out and grabbed hold of Genma's arm "Is here with our child." Genma meekly nodded in agreement.

Cologne spoke up "I too should stay here, in case any more issues with the curse should come up." She turned and spoke to Shampoo "Return to the restaurant granddaughter before that fool Mousse burns the place down. We will be closed tomorrow and you may come visit later in the day."

Even though she was obviously reluctant to leave, Shampoo bowed to Cologne "Yes Great Grandmother, as you wish." With that she turned and trotted for the exit and returned to the café, not noticing the duck flying over her head.

As those who remained watched Shampoo leave Kasumi spoke up "I think it best if we Tendos also return home at this time." This statement brought protests from the younger siblings who cried out that they still had no idea just what was wrong with Ranma in the first place.

Nodoka replied "We shall answer all questions tomorrow, after we have all had a chance to calm down."

This stopped the protests but did not prevent the sour looks from appearing on Akane and Nabiki's faces. With a promise to return early in the morning with warm food Kasumi hustled her family back home all the while hoping that she could keep her tears contained until she was back in the privacy of her own room.

Soon it was just the Saotome's and Cologne left in the waiting area, with a wry smile the aged Elder hopped over to a couch and patted the seat next to her in an invitation towards Nodoka. "Come Child, let us compare notes."

Nodoka sat down next to her and as her tears fell hard down her cheeks, relayed to Cologne everything that Dr. Tofu had told them of Ranma's injuries.

Cologne nodded as she listened "When I went in to lock Ranma's curse I saw that her injuries were grave indeed." Her eyes glistened slightly as unfallen tears started to form. "I have been alive for over 300 years, in that time I've seen Amazons injured in battle, in sparing and injured in serious accidents. I have cradled dead children in my arms and have closed the eyes on sisters who have died in child birth." She dabbed at her tears with a handkerchief "And in none of those years have I been affected like I was tonight looking at Ranma's battered body."

Cologne looked up into Nodoka's eyes "Ranma was in no battle; her injuries are not the kind earned in honorable combat." The eyes of both women began to take on a hard aspect "She was brutalized and tortured, someone wanted to destroy Ranma down to her very core."

"They did more than torture my daughter Elder." Nodoka said in a husky whisper.

"They? There is more than one attacker involved?" Cologne asked in a dark voice.

Genma nodded finally taking part in the conversation "Tofu says that there is evidence of at least 6 attackers but says that there are probably more." Genma looked away with a look of discomfort on his face "at least they believe there are more on account of the amount of evidence they recovered from the girl while examining her injuries caused by her rape."

Genma's voice finally broke as he said the word 'rape' and he stumbled towards the men's restroom as his eyes began to moisten.

Cologne looked at Nodoka "There is proof that she was raped?"

Nodoka slowly nodded as she watched Genma shuffle away. "Yes, beyond a doubt and by multiple attackers."

Cologne hopped up onto her staff as anger flooded her eyes "To the Amazons, rape is the most unforgivable crime and we will never allow such a crime to be inflicted on a sister without seeking vengeance."

Nodoka stared at the Elder who was practically trembling with rage "But Ranma is a male and not an Amazon."

"No Child," Cologne looked at Nodoka with a grim slash of a smile "The day Ranma defeated Shan Pu and became her Airen he was made an honorary Amazon. When he defeated Herb Ranma was granted full Amazon status and when he stopped Saffron he was granted honorary warrior status."

Cologne slowly rocked her back and forth on her staff as she continued "With her curse now permanently locked, I will contact the council today and Ranma will be granted full Amazon warrior status as is her right. She will be adopted into the tribe and will be under our protection and care."

The Elder stopped and smiled softly at Nodoka "As her mother, you too shall be granted full status in the tribe. I shall bring you both into my clan and watch over you both." Cologne noticed the concern on Nodoka's face. "Fear not Child, I will not try to drag either of you back to China if you do not wish to go. But know that there are rough times ahead for you two, especially for Ranma and I doubt that fool of a male you married will be of much use."

Cologne shrugged her shoulders "Nor will that wailing friend of his be of much use either I think. But the two oldest daughters will be useful indeed; in fact I think both of them would make nice tribal sisters." She smiled at Nodoka's questioning expression "Not all Amazons are warriors my Dear, there are many who do not have the talent or physical skills to fight but are worthy and able to aid the tribe in other ways. Kasumi would make a fine healer or a teacher of young girls. Nabiki has the skills needed to act as an ambassador to the outside world."

"What of Akane?" Nodoka inquired.

Cologne shook her head slowly "Until she learns to control her temper, all she'll ever be good for is as a frontline foot soldier. She can not be trusted to do much more than that."

"And Ranma?" Nodoka asked softly.

"Ah yes, Ranma." Cologne broke out in a huge smile "Do you know why I wanted Ranma for Shan Pu so badly?"

Nodoka shook her head.

"Because Ranma is honest, good natured, forgiving, quite possibly the best martial artist of this generation and incredibly loyal to those he gives his word or heart to. He is calm in battle with a very sharp tactical mind and is very adaptable and intelligent. In short, he and Shan Pu balance each other out perfectly. The two of them as a team would have been unbeatable." Cologne then gave a small chuckle "And the grandchildren they would have produced together would have been incredible."

Even Nodoka smiled a little bit at the thought of grandchildren but the smile faded just as quickly as it had appeared. "With Ranma now locked in his cursed form, he will never be able to father children." She said with a sad sigh.

"No she won't." Cologne agreed "But she will make a fine mother someday."

Nodoka looked over at Cologne as a bright light seemed to suddenly flare up in her eyes and she gave a hesitant smile at the Elder.

"Understand this Child," Cologne went on "Ranma has never had a proper male influence in her life, all she has ever had has been that worthless Genma who has filled her head with all that nonsense of his for years. To be honest, I'm surprised that Ranma can even interact with people at all given her rather limited exposure to normal social relationships."

The Elder continued "To be honest Nodoka while Ranma is certainly the greatest fighter I have seen in a long time, she isn't much good for any thing else, especially not for the future that you and Genma had planned for her."

"What do you mean Elder?" Nodoka asked not really understanding the point Cologne was trying to make.

Cologne sighed than took a deep breath and pressed on "It is true that Genma trained Ranma to be the best fighter of her generation which he did but at the cost of failing to train her in anything else. Ranma's education has been terribly neglected and so now Ranma does poorly in school and talks like an uneducated simpleton even though she is very intelligent and possess very good problem solving skills."

Nodoka nodded in understanding, she was often bothered by Ranma's rather rough way of talking.

Cologne went on "And with only limited exposure to other people besides Genma, Ranma's social skills are extremely limited so she lacks skills in dealing with people in a positive way as you have seen by her habit of speaking her mind before thinking about the consequences before hand."

"As I recall from Genma's blustering," Cologne scratched her chin with the end of her staff as she thought for a moment "Ranma was suppose to marry the youngest Tendo girl, run the dojo and make grandchildren."

Nodoka nodded "Yes that was the plan. Ranma would marry Akane and join the family schools and then teach the schools at the dojo." Nodoka gave a small sigh as she continued "and lots of grandbabies would be very nice."

Cologne chuckled at the far away look that flashed across Nodoka's face as she thought of grandchildren. "Unfortunately Dear, I doubt that it would have happened like that."

"I don't understand Elder, what do you mean?" Nodoka asked in a puzzled voice.

"Well, first off; Ranma only knows how to teach from the way she was taught by Genma." Cologne said with a slight smile as she watched the look of sudden understanding flash across Nodoka's face.

Nodoka had heard all of the horror stories about the tortures that Genma had inflicted on Ranma in the name of training and it made her shudder to think that Ranma could only teach his style by using the same methods.

Cologne went on "Second; all the time she spent on her training trip alone except for Genma have left her incapable of knowing how to react in a proper relationship. She simply doesn't understand what the male roles in relationships are supposed to be and when you add in her curse you can see why she is even more confused in how to behave."

"However, now that Ranma is locked and will spend the rest of her life as a woman means that she will have to learn not only how to act and behave as a female but will need to learn the female roles of a relationship." Cologne chuckled "Oh though I doubt that Ranma will become a traditional Japanese woman, she's far too independent for that."

Nodoka shared the chuckle "That is true, even before this; Ranma was always such a tomboy in his female body."

Khu Lon smiled "Genma took away your chance to raise your son," Nodoka glared a bit at that reminder as Khu Lon continued "But the Kami are giving you another chance Nodoka. You have a new daughter who has no idea how to be a woman. You must teach her the things she will need to know, even the most basic of things."

Khu Lon held up her hand to prevent Nodoka from interrupting her "While Ranma will forever now have the body of a female, for now she still has the mind of a young man, it will take time for the curse to fully change her mind completely female and it will be up to you to help make that change as quick and as easy as possible."

Nodoka nodded her head but her voice quivered slightly as she asked "But Khu Lon how do I help Ranma become a complete woman?"

'First Child, understand that Ranma will still think like a boy for a while, so expect her to be a tomboy for a bit longer." They both smiled at that. "And encourage her to be more feminine in her manner of speech and of mannerisms and clothing. But remember, you are not trying to make her into a woman among women, do not force her to try anything she might not want to, make a suggestion, say, ask her to try putting on make up, if she refuses do not push the point. Let her adjust to things at her own speed and eventually she'll come to you for make up advice, among other things."

Khu Lon reached out and took Nodoka's hand "Now I want to talk to you about the physical changes that Ranma will probably go through."

"Physical changes?" Nodoka said in a mildly fearful manner.

"Yes, let's start with the big one shall we?" Khu Lon smiled "Ranma's female body is fully functional and I believe that once it has acclimatized itself to now being Ranma's permanent form, it will begin acting as a girl's body should."

"You mean…..?" Nodoka whispered.

"Yes Dear, I believe that Ranma will start having a regular menstrual cycle in probably a month or so. So you will need to prepare yourself to give her the 'Talk'."

The thought of having the 'Talk' with Ranma made Nodoka blush slightly which wasn't missed by Khu Lon as she continued "I also think that Ranma will start a growth spurt that will bring her female body to more normal proportions for a girl her age."

"The surgery on her jaw will also change her appearance somewhat, it will probably take away some of her face's current soft curves and give her a slightly more angular jawline."

"It will take some considerable effort to teach and raise your new daughter. I will help out as much as you will let me, as I have said, I plan on adopting you both into my clan, and I'm sure that Kasumi will be of great help as well."

The ancient Elder took a deep breath and slowly released it before she continued "What I am truly worried about is the psychological damage that Ranma has taken."

Nodoka nodded "It will be bad won't it?"

"Indeed I'm afraid it will be very bad." Khu Lon replied "Between the attack and the rape…" Khu Lon Sighed "Ranma will be bothered by her injuries but will deal with them, Ranma has been injured before. However, it will be the humiliation of having her female body violated and being used as a mere tool to slake some perverted boys lusts that will be the worse for her to deal with. The permanent loss of her masculinity will just be the proverbial frosting on the cake."

Khu Lon gave Nodoka a sad eyed stare "I do not know if Ranma will be psychologically able to handle these things, especially given how hard Genma and even yourself have pushed the idea of being a man among men on Ranma."

Nodoka flinched at those words; she had been hard on Ranma to be manly in all things and Genma was even harder on the child. Now Ranma would no longer be manly at anything.

Suddenly she gasped as her hands flew to her mouth and her skin turned pale "do you think that Ranma would try to commit seppuku?"

Khu Lon thought for a moment before slowly nodding in agreement "Yes that is possible. She might just prefer death to a life that she has been taught to consider undesirable. It is perhaps a good thing that Ranma has yet to master Ryoga's Shi Shi Hokoden attack, at least hasn't mastered it that I know of or else we may have to be on the look out for her to try to use a depression attack to attempt suicide."

"Then I will just do my best to keep Ranma from choosing such options." Nodoka said and Khu Lon smiled softly at the look of determination on the woman's face. "I will help my child find her way in this new life that has been thrust upon her, even if I have to leave Nerima and Genma to do it."

"I'm afraid that it might come to that Child." Khu Lon sighed "even though we Amazons will back off from our marriage claims on Ranma, there is still the chef Ukyo and the psychotic Kodachi not to mention your husband and the Tendos to consider, then there are also all the males who seem to be out for Ranma's head."

Khu Lon gave a weary shrug "I wonder if Ranma will find peace in Nerima, ever."

The two continued their conversation until early in the morning, neither one noticing that Genma never seemed to return from his trip to the men's room.

Finally, after a visit by a weary Dr. Inohara who reported that Ranma's surgery was over and had gone well and that Ranma was in the recovery room and would probably be there for a while before being sent to her room in the intensive care unit.

After getting assurances from the doctor that they would be awakened when Ranma was transferred to her room, the two women drifted off into light and unsettled sleep.

The Present (14 hours after, 8:36am) Gaping Wounds

Early the next morning the Tendos followed by an unsettled looking Ukyo and a concerned looking Shampoo entered the waiting area just in time to see Nodoka and Khu Lon talking with a disheveled looking Dr. Tofu. As the group approached they could catch part of the conversation between the three.

"Indeed… her limbs have been placed in traction as has her spine; fortunately we have her under heavy sedation so her pain should be quite minimal." Tofu spoke softly but the concern in his voice was evident to everyone as he continued "She can have visitors but I'd recommend only two at a time with either you, Nodoka or Elder Khu Lon in the room to keep an eye on things."

Nodoka nodded "I agree, if anyone dares to disturb my daughter's rest they will deal with me personally."

Everyone took a step back in cautious fear at the tone of the Saotome Matriarch's voice but several faces broke out in looks of bewilderment at Nodoka's use of the term daughter in regards to Ranma.

Nodoka looked over the assembled group and upon not seeing her husband inquired "Has anyone seen Genma this morning?" She softly snarled already knowing the answer.

Among the various puzzled looks and quiet denials Kasumi spoke up "I haven't seen him since we left the hospital last night."

Soun nodded, disappointment obviously written on his face "He was not at the house for breakfast this morning, I had assumed that he was still here with you."

Nodoka shook her head as tears began to build in her eyes "No, he wandered off to the rest room after I began talking with Elder Khu Lon and I do not recall him returning."

Finally unable to stop her tears from slowly crawling down her cheeks, Nodoka turned from the group as she roughly whispered "Damn you Genma, can you be as useless as to run when our child needs you the most? When I need you the most?"

Nodoka startled a bit at the first touch of Kasumi wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder then slowly leaned into the support it offered.

"Excuse me," Ukyo suddenly spoke up breaking everyone out of the sadness that Genma's disappearance had cause "We know that Genma's a worthless bastard but what does that have to do with Ranma honey being in the hospital?"

At those words everyone rolled their eyes at the chef's lack of tact and Shampoo mumbled just loud enough to be heard "And they say that Shampoo too too direct."

That brought out a round of small smiles and grins as Nodoka began to lead the group to several couches in a secluded part of the waiting area.

"Now what I have to say will be difficult to hear to say the least," Nodoka began "But you must understand and accept that what I say is the truth. To be honest, this does send everything we thought about the future on its ear."

To say that Nodoka had everyone's undivided attention would be an understatement. Nabiki, Akane and Shampoo knew that something bad had happened to Ranma but weren't sure of the details while Ukyo was aware of the unease of those around her and had begun to suspect that whatever was about to said, it would not be pleasant.

Taking a deep breath and patting the supportive hand that Khu Lon had laid on her arm Nodoka began her explanation. "Last night Ranma was brought into the hospital with a multitude of severe injuries…"

"Was it that Taro fellow?" Ukyo interrupted

Nodoka froze the girl with a glare that told the chef that any interruptions were not appreciated "No, it wasn't Taro or any other martial artist that we know of."

Ukyo swallowed hard as she shrank back against the couch in the hopes of avoiding Nodoka's glare.

Nodoka favored the pale chef with a slight smile, satisfied that she had gotten the point and then continued "What the doctors believe is that somehow Ranma was given a large quantity of some drug. While under the effects of the drug Ranma was…" Nodoka fought back tears with small success "raped, beaten and tortured, then dumped along the roadside."

To say that the group was stunned into silence by Nodoka's words would be an understatement. Most of them sat there, their faces nothing but blank masks, however Nabiki's face slowly drained of color as she began to fear that she may know what had happened to Ranma last night.

"Excuse me, I don't feel well," Nabiki stammered as she unsteadily rose to her feet "I think I need some air."

Nabiki waved off the concerns of the group as she made her way outside and collapsed against the side of the hospital.

"Please Kami; please tell me that I didn't lead Ranma like a lamb to slaughter." She prayed as the tears flowed down her face. As she sat there trying to compose herself her attention was caught by the ringing of her cell phone.

Opening her phone she read the message on the screen "Incoming Mail"

Opening up her mail box her stomach filled with butterflies when she saw that the mail was sent by one of her regular information gatherers. The mail was labeled "Is this for real??"

Nabiki took one look at the photo that the open mail had revealed before setting her phone to the side and began heaving her breakfast across the hospital's lawn. The picture showed a naked Ranmachan surrounded by naked guys with a grinning Seiji between her legs flashing a thumbs up sign while grinning ear to ear. The photo was labeled "Pic 5"

After a few minutes Nabiki was down to dry heaves that she soon got under control. In the time it took her to get her stomach under control Nabiki received three more mails from three other informants, all showing her pictures of Ranmachan in various sex acts, sometimes with several guys at once.

Nabiki took several deep breaths before she began furiously typing a mail in reply.

Meet me at the usual place in 45minutes. In the mean time, get your hands on as many of_ these pics as you can and any video footage that may be out there. I'll explain everything at the meeting, I want EVERYONE to attend, this is of the highest importance._

_Chief_

After sending the mail, Nabiki got up and headed back to the waiting area, stopping only at a nearby water fountain to rinse the foul taste of vomit out of her mouth.

Kasumi looked up as Nabiki approached and noticed that her younger sister was still quite pale "Are you alright Nabiki?"

Nabiki waved her off with a wave of her hand "I'm fine Kasumi."

Nabiki turned to face Nodoka "Auntie, is there anyway I can go see Ranma, real soon?"

Nodoka blinked a few times before answering "Well yes, I guess we can go right now if it's that important to you."

As Nodoka turned to head towards the elevators with Nabiki in tow behind her, Nabiki turned to Khu Lon "Elder, you had better come along as well."

Soon the three were riding the elevator up to the intensive care unit and Khu Lon shot the still pale teen a concerned look "What is going on Young Tendo? You seem quite bothered."

Nabiki said nothing as the elevator opened and she exited with the two adults behind her. She led them into a small consultation room and shut the door behind them.

"I know what happened to Ranma last night and who was responsible." Nabiki came right out and told them, causing the older women's eyes to open wide in surprise. When pressed for details she told them the story of Seiji's story of making peace with Ranma and Nabiki broke down in sobs as she told them of being paid to bring Ranma to the party.

As she reached the end of her story, she brought out her cell phone and showed the photos to Nodoka and Khu Lon who both promptly paled then began to flush scarlet in barely suppressed rage.

"Where did you get these things?" Nodoka practically spit out the word 'things'.

Nabiki replied in a soft tone "Several of my 'helpers' sent them to my cell phone this morning, these bastards posted the damn things online which means by tonight everyone is going to see them."

Nabiki's face set firm as she looked Nodoka square in the eye "That's why I need you to let me do something unpleasant right now."

Nodoka's face was draining its color as Nabiki's words filled her ears "And just what do you need to do?"

"I need to take a couple of pictures of Ranma as she is right now." Nabiki answered as Nodoka's face showed her shock at the request and she quickly continued cutting off Nodoka's initial response "Look at these photos Auntie," Nabiki waved her cell phone at the still shocked woman. "We know that Ranma is under the influence of some drug in them but you really can't tell from the photos, there's no sign of her being restrained or held down, hell, she's even smiling in several of them."

Nabiki continued as her words sank into the older women's minds "These pictures are already being passed around through the school grapevine and they make Ranma seem like a willing participant. The kids at school are going to be thinking that Ranma is some kind of secret party slut and the bastards that raped her will have an easier time getting away with this crap and escaping justice."

Khu Lon nodded as she listened; the middle Tendo sister had a good grasp on what would probably happen. "And you plan to use photos of Ranma's current condition to prove against this assumption I take it?'

Nabiki gave a grim faced nod "Yeah, I want to show everyone the truth about what happened last night. I probably won't be able to convince everyone of the truth but those that I do convince will make it easier for Ranma to recover from all of this."

"With her honor and reputation intact." Nodoka added, knowing just what kind of fall out would hit her child if this rumor was left unchecked. "Alright, I will agree to let you take a few photos of Ranma and I will get a copy of her blood toxin tests that should strengthen your argument that Ranma was not a willing participant in this horror."

Nabiki nodded in silent agreement and as the three exited the consultation room Khu Lon spoke to Nabiki.

"Once you have identified every male in those pictures you will give me a list of names and addresses." Khu Lon's tone of voice made it clear that this was not just a request. "Ranma is an Amazon and as Matriarch of the tribe I can not let this atrocity go unpunished." The ancient Elder practically snarled the last few words out.

"Elder, it would not be wise for us to condone an Amazon blood hunt here on Japanese soil, no matter how deserving it may be." Nodoka flashed the Elder with a brief smile.

Khu Lon returned a small smile of her own "You're probably right child; I doubt that an international incident would be a good thing right now."

That brought out a round of quiet chuckles from the trio as they made their way towards Ranma's room then Khu Lon continued "However, we Amazons have access to many powerful shiatsu and pressure points that those males deserve to experience first hand."

Nabiki nodded "yeah, give them the Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion, that'd teach them."

Khu Lon replied "That one and we do know one point that will forever remove the ability of their so called manhood to function in anyway, not even one of those little pills will be able to help them after they receive the punishment and maybe a few Jusenkyo curses thrown in."

"You want to turn them into women so that they can experience things the way that Ranma does?" Nabiki asked, slightly shocked that the Amazon Elder would consider the use of Jusenkyo curses for punishment, then she remembered Shampoo's own cursing for her failure to kill Ranma's girl form when she first arrived from China.

Khu Lon snorted as she shook her head "Elevate those worthless males to the status of a woman?" She said in disbelief "I think not young Tendo, they are far from worthy, and I'm sure more appropriate forms could be chosen for them."

Nabiki liked that suggestion as visions of swarms of little black piglets swam through her head "Alright Khu Lon, if you promise to keep your girls from going on a bloody rampage I'll get you the list of names, it should take me a week or so to make sure that I can identify everyone in the pictures.

Khu Lon nodded as the trio stopped in front of the door to Ranma's room. "Good, there will be sisters in Nerima within two weeks. I'm sure it will be a successful hunt."

Nodoka told the two to go ahead and take the pictures that Nabiki would need while she went to talk to Dr. Tofu about getting a copy of Ranma's blood toxin report.

Nabiki had braced herself as she entered the room, she had expected the sight of Ranma's battered body to be hard to take but even she could not easily take in just how bad a shape Ranma was in.

Her arms and legs, encased in heavy plaster casts, were held straight out from her body aided by the traction system of weights and pullies. An IV line was attached to a vein in the back of her right hand. A large mass of plaster and bandages covered the injured girl from practically her neck to her pelvis and yet more weights and pullies held her body perfectly straight. A plastic tube ran up her nose and led down to her stomach to provide Ranma with a source of nourishment and a large tube connected to a ventilator aided the injured girl in breathing.

Nabiki blushed slightly at the sight of the catheter bag hanging on the side of the bed, although the obvious red tint to its contents concerned her.

Just about everywhere on Ranma that wasn't covered in plaster casts were covered in bruises but it was Ranma's face that almost brought Nabiki to her knees.

Nabiki had always considered Ranma's female face to be beautiful even to the point of stunning and Nabiki had often spent hours trying to dream up ways to convince Ranma to take up professional modeling with her as Ranma's manager, but to no avail.

But where there was once gentle curves covered by pale alabaster skin there was now swaths of bandages, many now stained a dull reddish brown in color, and the pale skin was now a continuous mass of bruises mixed with stitches.

With trembling hands Nabiki pulled out her cell phone and took several photos including a close up of Ranma's face before her resolve broke and she fled the cold sterile room with tears flowing down her cheeks.

Khu Lon pogo'd up to the middle sister and laid a comforting hand upon the girl's arm "Well, it seems that you're not the ice queen that you portray yourself to be." The Elder graced the smirking girl with a slight smile.

"Not when it comes to my family Elder." Nabiki answered then continued as her face took on a cold look "You will get your list Khu Lon but remember, Seiji Takada belongs to me. He used me to set Ranma up and I'll be damned before I let him get away with it."

Khu Lon offered a nod in agreement "Agreed child, you may have this Seiji boy, the Amazons will take care of the rest. I trust that you will not be kind to him."

Nabiki flashed the feral smile of a predator "Oh Trust me Elder, when I'm finished with him he'll be begging for death."

Nodoka returned and passed several pieces of paper over to Nabiki. Taking the pages Nabiki said her farewells and headed off to her meeting with her assistants leaving the two older women to look in on the still slumbering Ranma.

The Otohmi Ice Cream parlor was something of a landmark in Nerima. Established in 1946 by Aki Otohmi following his discharge from the Imperial Army after World War II, the parlor had been passed down from father to son ever since becoming one of only a handful of truly family owned businesses left in Nerima where most shops and stores were rapidly becoming outlets for large corporate chains.

The parlor had prospered during the rapid growth spurt after the war and had managed to hang on during the terrible recession. It had even survived being ground zero for at least two battles between the local martial artists in the area.

It was well known for being a relatively quiet and relaxing place to be, with its high backed booths giving the patrons the illusion of private dinning while they enjoyed a selection of almost 30 flavors of ice cream, all of which were lovingly hand made by the Otohmi family using secret family recipes from the freshest and highest quality ingredients available.

All told, the Otohmi Ice Cream parlor was a popular place with the locals and with the students of the local high school most of all. In fact, going to the parlor for an ice cream cone after Saturday classes was almost a tradition for the students, a well deserved reward for getting through another week of classes at Furinken High School without getting caught in the middle of a high powered martial arts battle, not being kidnapped by overly amorous princes from small foreign countries that no one has ever heard of, not being blasted, zapped, fried, getting an unwelcomed haircut from the school's loon of a principle and occasionally for even getting a passing grade.

So it was understandable why Asuta Otohmi, the latest in the family to take over managing the parlor, was sweating bullets as he noticed the two parties sitting next to each other in the private booths.

On the right was a group of Furinken girls that he knew well, there was Megumi Otonashi who was on the track team, Ayamu Toyagashi from the 'IN' crowd, Donako Maehara from the student council, Ran Kotobushi from the slacker clique and Sonoka Watanabe from the science club.

He smiled as he remembered how Sonoka had smiled at him when she walked through the door and then blushed when he waved back and gave her a big warm smile of his own.

The thing these girls all had in common however was that they all worked for Nabiki Tendo as the heads of her information gathering network and if they were gathered together now that meant that the mercenary had called for a group meeting.

Not that Asuta minded really, the girls tended to eat and drink constantly during their meetings, didn't really disrupt the flow of business and generally behaved themselves and that was alright with Asuta. Of course the fact that he and Sonoka got to spend most of the meeting exchanging shy glances with each other was a pretty good thing too.

No it wasn't the upcoming meeting that bothered him right now, it was the customer in the left booth that disturbed him, well to be honest she disturbed everyone but she seemed to make it a definite practice to disturb Asuta.

The girl was rude, demanding, would sit there for hours nursing a hot fudge sundae and a small coke and barely left any tip other than a pile of stupid black rose petals all over the place that he would then have to clean up.

Yes, the customer in the left booth was in fact Kodachi Kuno.

Contrary to popular belief, Kodachi did not spend all her time in some weird hidden lab in her mansion thinking up new ways to win her beloved Ranma-sama while pushing the boundaries of chemical engineering, sometimes she did these things away from her mansion too.

Today however, Kodachi was simply spending the afternoon enjoying a hot fudge sundae and dreaming about romantic getaways with Ranma, always a favorite way for her to pass the time.

So it was with a bit a anger that she glared at the divider that separated her from the gaggle of peasant girls clucking away like a bunch of old hens. However when she discovered that the low born girls were talking about her rival, the redhaired harlot and that some very bad had apparently happened to her, Kodachi took a sudden interest in the conversation.

The girls sat squeezed in their booth, oblivious to the presence of the slightly insane Kuno sister, and their conversation was dominated by the pictures of a girl type Ranma taking part in an orgy of some kind.

Two girls shared the opinion that this should be no surprise really, considering how good Ranma was at acting like a girl. Another voiced an opinion that anyone who had to deal with Akane's violence for an extended period of time could very easily turn to such behavior just to get some stress relief.

Sonoka and Ran however both pushed the theory that what they were looking at was not even close to what really happened and that maybe Nabiki could tell them the truth.

Soon said girl walked through the door and made her way to where her underlings had gathered, needless to say that all the girls were shock by her red eyes and obvious signs of crying. Add to that, Nabiki's less than perfect appearance and obvious look of distraught was enough to give even her girls pause.

Nabiki sat down and called Asuta over and ordered a small cherry milkshake and a large soda. That caught the attention of the girls as Nabiki rarely drank a milk shake of any flavor claiming that all the sugar in them made her hyper.

After Asuta returned with her order, Nabiki pulled out her cell phone and sent a copy of the photo's she had just taken of Ranma to each girl present.

Nabiki spoke up as each girl looked at their now ringing phones and spoke up to them before they could check their mail.

"Before you open the file I just sent you," Nabiki began stopping the girls and gaining their complete attention "I want you all to send me a copy of every one of the Ranma pics that you have got recently."

Megumi gave her chief a wide eyed look "You don't mean that those pics are real do you?"

Ayamu added her own words, laced with disbelief "Yeah, I'm mean I always thought that Ranma was strictly into girls only, even when a girl himself."

Ran piped in as she began sending the pictures she has received over night. "Although he does have all them girls hanging on him and I haven't heard anyone honestly say that they did the nasty with him."

Sonoka shook her head sending her long braids flailing around the table causing everyone to duck to avoid getting hit by one of them "No way," she angrily protested "There's no way that Ranma would do such things, I mean she did stop the Hentai Horde and stuff."

Donako nodded in agreement "Yeah, Ranma did put a stop to all the harassment that the jocks were doing to us girls. I just can't believe that Ranma would do such things."

Nabiki sat there silently drinking her shake as she listened to the conversation, finally with a loud slurp she finished off the last of her shake and placed the empty cup on the table in front of her and then raised a hand to bring silence to the table and allowing her to speak uninterrupted.

"Unfortunately those photos are real," Nabiki began, ignoring the wide opened mouth stares that her assistants were giving her "That is really Ranma screwing all those guys. However…"

Before she could finish her sentence a long ribbon snaked out and wrapped around Megumi's cell phone pulling it from the startled girl's grasp and disappearing over the high back divider.

Before the girls could protest the theft of the phone, their blood seemed to freeze as they recognized an unfortunately familiar laugh.

"Ohhohohoho, to think that the little harridan was such a slut." Kodachi appeared holding Megumi's phone while covering her mouth with her hand "The little tramp is unworthy of my Ranma-sama and when I show everyone these photos the shame will drive the tart far from him."

As Kodachi stood there laughing and detailing her plans for disgracing the redhaired harlot Nabiki stood up and did what would soon be known as one of the bravest acts of stupidity ever seen in Nerima.

She walked over to Kodachi and grabbed the phone from the surprised girl and then slapped the Black Rose hard across the face, leaving her standing there stunned while holding a hand over the rapidly reddening spot on her cheek. Nabiki than sat back down and passed the phone back to Megumi.

"Now, if we may continue without anymore interruptions, you may open the file I sent you." Nabiki said as she shot a now recovering Kodachi an icy glare.

The gathered girls opened the files and gasps and sounds of surprise filled the air catching the attention of the few other patrons and causing Kodachi to lower the spiked club that she was preparing to use on Nabiki and she then looked over the shoulder of Sonoka.

"As you can see by the time stamp on the pictures, I took those just about twenty minutes ago." Nabiki said in an even tone.

"My God," Ran muttered "Is this Ranma?"

"Yeah, it's her." was Nabiki's terse reply.

"What happened to her?" Kodachi asked as she sat down in the booth causing Megumi, Ran and Ayamu to squeeze in closer.

"Those photos are real, that is in fact Ranma but they are not pictures of a gangbang," Nabiki began to explain "They are pictures of a gangrape and the photos I just sent you are the aftermath of the attack."

Ayamu twirled a lock of her black hair around her finger as she spoke up in a perplexed voice "But how? I mean Ranma is a martial arts master and she sure seems to be enjoying herself."

Nabiki sighed "Seiji Takada came to me asking me to bring Ranma to a party so that the jocks could make peace with him before they graduated. At the party they used some kind of drug on her and raped her repeatedly before beating her, torturing her and then they dumped her on a street corner downtown."

As all the girls paled Kodachi leaned forward "You said they drugged her, what did they use?" Her tone of voice told everyone that she was not convinced of the truth of Nabiki's story.

Nabiki unfolded the page of Ranma's blood toxin tests and past it to Kodachi who picked it up and looked it over before setting it back down with a slow whistle.

"Kami-sama," Kodachi asked in a soft voice filled with wonder "And she's still alive?"

Nabiki nodded as the other girls looked at the two with perplexed looks on their faces.

Finally Donako spoke up "What do you mean is she still alive?"

Kodachi laid the paper down flat on the table and began pointing at several numbers "You see this number?" she asked Donako who nodded slowly "This is the volume of toxins in her blood at the time this test was performed and with this number any one of us would be dead of an overdose."

"So you're saying that they were trying to kill Ranma with a drug overdose?" Ayamu asked in an almost whispered tone.

Nabiki spoke up "No I don't think so, when they pumped Ranma's stomach they recovered large quantities of fruit punch, probably the means of getting the drug into Ranma."

Nabiki paused to take a sip of her soda before continuing "Personally, I figured that they were scared of using too little of the drug on Ranma and simply kept pouring it into her until they felt secure in the dosage."

Everyone, Kodachi included, nodded in agreement as Nabiki pointed her straw at Kodachi "So Koda-chan, you're the chemistry expert here, any idea what they gave her?"

As Kodachi looked over the test results and analysis Nabiki sat there in silent wonderment of the fact that not only was she actually sitting down having an intelligent conversation with the crazy girl but that Kodachi might just be able to be of some help after all.

Kodachi finally sat the papers down with a heavy sigh "You're right about the fruit punch being the transport medium." She began while using a flick of a ribbon to retrieve her own soda, raising several eyebrows in the process. "Without having a blood sample of my own for analysis I have to use these primitive readings."

Everyone shared a small smile at Kodachi's prima donna compliant as she continued "To use common peasant lingo, they slipped her a 'Shanghai cocktail'.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow "And just exactly, oh Princess of the Lab, is a Shanghai cocktail?"

Kodachi grinned at Nabiki's phrasing of her question "That my dear Nabs," that brought out another round of smiles from the girls, even Nabiki "Is a combination of various drugs, mostly in this case a mix of sedatives and relaxants."

Kodachi pointed to a line on the analysis "But this has me worried."

Knowing that any drug that makes Kodachi nervous was definitely bad news Nabiki leaned in closer "What is it?" the brown haired mercenary inquired.

"It's a street drug called 'Bite'," Kodachi replied "It's something new, apparently it links the user's pain receptors to their pleasure centers, basically, the more pain the more pleasure."

Nabiki snorted in disgust "Which is why Ranma is smiling while being gangraped?"

Kodachi nodded with a similar look of disgust on her face "Indeed."

Sonoka looked over at Kodachi and asked nervously "Umm Kuno Sempai, how do you know about this drug if it's new?"

Kodachi flashed the younger girl a slight smile and began to explain in a tone one would use to explain something to a child "Well, a few months ago one of my opponents in a rhythmic gymnastics meet used the drug right before our match. The more I hit her the more she enjoyed it." Kodachi gave a shrug as she sipped her soda "They finally disqualified her after she started, ah… pleasuring herself… in the ring."

Kodachi finished her soda and waved the empty glass at Asuta asking for a refill as the other girls face planted into the table top.

Ran recovered quickly and asked the big question "Ok Chief, how bad is Ranma hurt?"

Nabiki set her drink down and slumped back in her seat "She's hurt bad, real bad."

Ayamu asked in a concerned voice "Bad like missing a couple of weeks of school bad?"

Nabiki shook her head "More like missing the rest of the school year and probably all of the next school year kind of bad."

That caused more than a couple of eyebrows to raise and cause Kodachi to ask hoarsely "Just what did they do to the girl?"

Nabiki ran a finger through the water rings her soda glass made on the table top as she took a few moments to gather her thoughts "Well, outside of repeatedly raping her in just about every way imaginable, they broke both her arms and both her legs, broke several ribs, tried to break her back, they shattered her face so badly that it had to be surgically rebuilt."

Nabiki stopped to compose herself as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes, then she continued as she noticed the other girls tearing up, even Kodachi "She's covered in bite marks, scratches, bruises, welts and what looks like multiple cigarette burns and I don't even want to know why they saw fit to pierce her in several 'delicate' places."

When she finished Nabiki noticed that Kodachi was looking paler than usual and she understood when the Kuno girl excused herself and headed quickly to the bathroom. Several of her girls looked like they were considering joining her. Nabiki took the opportunity to lean in and whisper to her assistants. "Kodachi doesn't know that boy Ranma and girl Ranma is the same person, or maybe just refuses to see the truth, anyhow we must make sure that we keep referring to Ranma as a girl and if I need to feed her some kind of stupid story about the two, just back me up. Got it?"

Her team nodded as they noticed Kodachi returning from the rest room looking a bit flushed.

"Feeling better Koda-chan?" Nabiki asked with a wry smile.

"Much." Kodachi admitted as she sat back down at the table. "Although I am forced to admit that while I am sorry that the girl was so mistreated I am glad that she won't be chasing after my Ranma-sama any more."

Nabiki clenched her teeth for a moment until she calmed down, but she could not hide the edge to her voice as she leaned towards Kodachi. "Kodachi, for once in your life get your head out of the clouds and listen to me." Nabiki snarled at the startled gymnast "Ranma was NEVER after your precious Ranma-sama, EVER!"

Kodachi narrowed her eyes as she spat back "No? Then why did she always interfere with my plans to be with my dear Ranma-sama?"

"She was protecting him." came Nabiki's reply.

"Protecting him? From what?" Kodachi queried.

"From you and your paralysis gas and your sleep gas and any other sneaky tricks that you tried." Nabiki growled.

Kodachi smirked "Well, all's fair in love's war you know." The other girls groaned at those words as Kodachi continued "And just what gives the redhaired one reason to think she can just interfere in the actions of her betters anyway?"

Nabiki opened up her waist pack and rummaged in it for a moment before pulling out and laying down two photos, one each of both of Ranma's forms. "Take a close look Koda-chan, you notice anything?"

Kodachi stared at the photos for a moment "Well, she could use a bit of make up, just to enhance her natural beauty of course."

Nabiki rolled her eyes as she sighed out a reply "No not that. Just take a close look and compare the two."

Kodachi resumed staring for a few more minutes before she sat upright, blinking her eyes a few times "They are wearing the same style of clothes although her's are several sizes too large for her."

"And what else do you notice?" Nabiki prompted.

"They share the same colored eyes." Kodachi answered as she continued comparing the photos "And they have the same hair style, just different colors."

Nabiki gave a wry smile "That is correct Koda-chan. Do you know why they share so many traits?"

Kodachi could only shake her head.

"Because they are siblings Koda-chan." Nabiki answered with a grin shared by the other girls.

"Siblings? The redhaired one is Ranma's sister?" Kodachi said in a low tone as a picture began to form in her mind.

"That's correct; she is his kid sister in fact." Nabiki confirmed "She doesn't go to Furinken because she lives with their mother in Juuban and only visits Ranma periodically."

Kodachi sat there trying to wrap her brain around what she had just learned "She is Ranma-sama's younger sister and she thought that I was being too aggressive in my pursuit of her brother, whom she obviously idolizes as she seems to mimic everything he does, thus her similar manner of dress and hair style."

The other girls sat there fascinated with the way Kodachi's mind worked.

"And she was testing me to ensure that I was truly worthy of her brother." Kodachi exclaimed as if it all made perfect sense. "But given Ranma's ability to arrive in the nick of time and his fierce fighting styles why did he not come to his sister's aid?"

Nabiki gave a brief nod to her team before continuing "He tried, you've seen those pictures, there were dozens of guys involved. Not even Ranma could stand up to that many guys at once, especially since I doubt that they would have given him the grace of a fair fight"

"Ranma-sama's been hurt hasn't he Nabiki?" Kodachi asked hesitantly.

Nabiki hung her head as she softly whispered "They killed him Kodachi, it was the only way they could get to his sister, through his dead body."

Kodachi gasped as she brought her hands up to cover her mouth "No! You must be wrong. My Ranma-sama is unbeatable! He can not be dead!"

Nabiki reached out and grabbed the distraught girl's hands "Listen to me Kodachi! You saw the photos I took of her in the hospital; Ranma would never have allowed that to happen to his sister if he was still alive."

Kodachi unsteadily rose to her feet, holding a fist up in the air she proclaimed in a loud voice "My Ranma-sama, I shall avenge you and I will protect your dear sister!"

With a flurry of black rose petals she vanished from the ice cream parlor, causing Asuta to reach for the broom, the girls to look in stunned amazement and for Nabiki to just shake her head and sigh.

"For a moment there she was almost normal." Nabiki commented in a dry tone of voice.

Sonoka sat there looking nervous as she pushed her index fingers together, finally she spoke up in a soft whisper "You weren't kidding about Ranma being dead are you Chief?"

Ayamu snorted "Of course she's kidding Brainiac; I mean sure he's pretty beat up in the pictures but he's still alive."

Sonoka rolled her eyes as she replied to her friend's comments "No I mean if they rebuilt Ranma's face they must have used screws and maybe metal plates as well."

"And your point is?" Ran piped in.

"Look, there's a big difference between Ranma's boy and girl forms," Sonoka answered then took a sip of her own now mostly watered down soda "Ranma's girl form is a lot smaller in terms of height and body size. I'm thinking that all that metal in her face means that Ranma won't be able to change back to being a guy again."

Nabiki smiled as she listened to Sonoka's reasoning "Kudos to the girl genius." Nabiki said with a smile causing the shy girl to blush "You are correct, Ranma had to have her curse locked and can never change back into a guy again."

Donako added "So in a sense, you told Kodachi the truth, her Ranma-sama really is gone."

Nabiki nodded "And Seiji and his friends are responsible for that."

Megumi took a drink of soda "That crazy girl will kill them if she can."

That brought out a round of chuckles as Nabiki responded "Too bad in her haste she forgot to ask just who she had to kill, but at least it'll keep her out of our hair for a while." That brought out another round of chuckles.

Megumi pointed her straw at Nabiki "ok Chief, enough small talk. Seiji needs to be stopped and I just know that there is no way that you're going to let him get away with this."

Sonoka jumped in an almost livid voice "Yeah, Ranma did so much to help protect the girls from the jocks it would be a sin to not help him… er… her out now."

Nabiki smiled as she leaned in towards the center of the table, drawing the other girls in close as well "You're right, I'm not letting him get away with this. The first thing we have to do is go through these photos that are being sent around and identify everyone in them and I want names and addresses as well as anything else we can dig up on them. In two weeks this city will be crawling with Amazons looking for scalps to take and I plan on giving them a list."

Ayamu's eyes widened in surprise "You mean that Shampoo's people are getting involved."

Nabiki nodded with a grim look "Yes, even though Ranma hasn't acknowledged Shampoo's marriage claim, he has done enough for her village that they consider Ranma as part of the tribe. In fact, Shampoo's great grandmother Cologne plans on officially adopting Ranma and her mother as part of her clan. The Amazons consider rape as the worst of all crimes and will do anything to avenge a tribal sister who has been raped."

Donako whistled "Man, the Amazons will have the streets covered in blood by the time they are finished."

"No, Cologne promised that she'd keep the girls under control," Nabiki replied "They will be using only pressure points to render them impotent forever and will probably remove their strength, although Cologne did mention the possibility of perhaps giving a few of them a curse like Ranma's."

Ran grinned along with the others "Yeah, turning Seiji into a girl would be a fitting punishment."

"Oh no, you see that was part of the agreement between Cologne and myself," Nabiki sat there with a predator's grin that almost made the girls afraid for Seiji "The Amazons get Seiji's flunkies, but Seiji's ass belongs to me."

To their dying days the girls would always swear that Nabiki said those words with such icy venom that they saw her breath and small chunks of ice fell onto the table top.

After taking a few moments to regain her composure Nabiki continued "Our other jobs are simple. One: Seiji's going to be trying to use these pictures to claim that Ranma was a willing participant; we need to squash those lines of thought as quick as we can. Use the pictures I sent you to help convince any who have trouble believing the truth. We won't convince them all but at least we should be able to get most of them to see the truth."

Nabiki continued "Two: It will be at least six months before Ranma can even begin therapy to start regaining her strength again and with her face having been rebuilt the doctors have told her family that a strong hit to the face will likely kill her, so her days of martial arts contests are officially over so we will need to act as an early warning system incase anyone shows up to challenge Ranma. That way others can intercept them before they can get to Ranma."

"Our third job may be the hardest one yet," Nabiki finished her soda "We need to act as a buffer between Ranma and the kids at school."

The other girls nodded in agreement as they thought about the reactions of their classmates. For a moment, the only sounds coming from the group were the sounds of the last drops of soda being drawn up into straws, then Megumi spoke up,

"The school rumor mill is going to eat Ranma alive." She sadly voiced the shared opinion of the group.

Donako set her glass firmly down onto the table top "Then we have to make sure that the gossip mongers get their stories straight."

All the girls nodded in agreement.

Nabiki gave a grim smile of her own as she pulled out a notebook and a pen "Ok Ladies," she said with a firm tone of voice "Let's start identifying just who these jerks are."

And at that, the group ordered another round of sodas and began pouring through the photos they collected, writing down the names of everyone they could identify.

1 Week Later

Nodoka sat in a chair next to her child's bed and held her daughter's hand. The last week had taken a toll on the Saotome matron. Her husband had proven just how worthless he was by running away and hadn't been heard from since. Ranma was still unconscious; all the meds in her system kept her that way to keep her pain to a minimum. The Tendos had been very supportive during the last week and Nodoka had no doubts that without their supportive strength, she might not had made it through this current crisis as well as she has.

What amazed Nodoka the most though was the amount of support for Ranma that had come from her fellow students at school. When the terrible rumors began about Ranma being a willing participant in the orgy in the photos had begun even Nabiki was amazed by the number of people who began to declare that there was no way that Ranma would do such a thing. It seemed as if the pigtailed martial artist had more friends than anyone had thought.

It was true that there were still more than a few students who put forth the story that Ranma had willfully joined the party but since they were all pretty much known to have a beef with Ranma, their opinions were quickly dismissed.

When word got around at just how badly Ranma was injured and how she was now locked in her cursed form and would forever more be a woman, her hospital room was soon filled to overflowing with flowers, balloons, get well cards and stuffed animals of all sizes.

It should be mentioned that Akane and Nabiki helped weed out the cards that were in fact derogatory or in a few cases outright obscene, those senders were quickly identified and placed on a special list to be taken care of very soon.

Not only the amount of support stunned Nodoka, but the kind of support was simply overwhelming. The geeks in the audio/visual club had sent Ranma a generous collection of popular music CDs, movie DVDs and a large anime collection all for her to enjoy as soon as she was able to and all of them fine quality bootlegs and pirated downloads. They even threw in a CD player complete with headphones for her to use with her new music library. The girls in the Home Development club kept the hospital staff and Ranma's visitors well stuffed with all manner of hand made cookies, cakes and pastries and a few days ago Nodoka had returned from getting a bite to eat to discover that not only had the Furinken High School Fashion Club repainted all of Ranma's casts but they were currently in the middle of painting Ranma's toenails and fingernails a rather fetching color as they told the unconscious girl all the latest gossip.

In short, the sheer amount of support that Ranma was receiving from her fellow students was simply much more than anyone expected.

The biggest surprises came from Kodachi Kuno, one night Nodoka and Kasumi had come to visit and were surprised to find the dark haired gymnast sitting beside Ranma's bed holding her hand and apologizing for her past actions. Kodachi then went on to stun Nodoka even more by declaring that as a sign that she no longer held any animosity towards Ranma, the Kuno family would cover the cost of Ranma's hospital stay and treatments, now and in the future.

In fact Kodachi had declared herself as Ranma's 'Big Sister' now and felt it was her responsibility to watch over the injured girl, as a sign of her devotion to the memory of her dearly departed Ranma-sama.

Three days ago the warriors from Khu Lon's village appeared, making camp at the Cat Café.

Yesterday Nabiki went to talk to the elder and to set down the ground rules for the hunt.

Today Nabiki was walking down the road with a tall Amazon beside her both heading towards the police station.

"So why exactly are we going to see the police?" the Amazon asked in near flawless Japanese.

"One; to keep them from freaking out when they start getting reports of the streets overflowing with Amazons," Nabiki answered as they reached the precinct door "And Two; So that they can start rounding up these jerks after you girls get through with them."

The Amazon merely grunted in acknowledgement as the two entered the building.

The days that followed would soon be known for all time as "The Great Amazon Man Hunt" as the Amazons began searching out those responsible for the attack on Ranma. In fact the Amazons were so successful and their punishments so severe that more than a few of the hunted rushed down to the police stations and turned themselves in before the Amazons could get to them.

Seiji Takada was a man on a mission and that mission was to get out of Nerima as fast as possible. He had seen several of his friends dragged off by Amazons only to wind up being deposited on the steps of the police station in ragged condition and he knew it was only a matter of time before he was next.

Word had gotten around school despite Seiji's attempts to paint Ranma as a willing participant just what had really occurred at the party and the student body was getting rather vocal in their opinions of just what should happen to those who had taken part in it.

Seiji decided that sending the photos of the party around the school gossip mill was probably not the brightest thing he could have done as it definitely incriminated him and the others. Still he was certain that he would soon be away from Nerima soon enough to avoid any fallout.

While Seiji basked in his sense of security the hairs on the back of his neck began to rise and he suddenly realized that he was no longer alone. Looking up he noticed Nabiki Tendo approaching him, with her was a green haired woman whose style of dress caused Seiji to note her as being one of those Amazons that he heard was about town.

Seiji looked to his right, looking for a quick escape route and noticed another Amazon approaching from that direction, an honest to kami sword was held at the ready in her hand. A quick look around revealed that Seiji was in fact surrounded by the women and they certainly didn't look happy to see him.

"Don't even think about trying to run Takada." Nabiki growled at him "There are Amazons all around this area and they all want an excuse to cut you down."

Seiji gave a little laugh that came out a bit more nervous sounding than he would have liked "Why would I run Tendo?"

"Can the cutesy act Takada," Nabiki sat down across from Seiji while the green haired Amazon stood behind her holding a bottle of something. "You're not getting away with what you did to Ranma."

"Come on now Tendo, I didn't do nothing to Ranma that he didn't want." Seiji replied with a slight grin that quickly faded as Nabiki leaned forward.

"I know about the drug you used Takada, it's called Bite." Nabiki smirked as sweat began to appear on Seiji's forehead. "And I know all about what it does to those under it's influence."

Nabiki sat back up as she glared at the now nervous boy "What you did to Ranma was sick and wrong Takada but you made it worse by using me to set Ranma up. I don't like being used Takada."

"So what now Tendo? You gonna turn me over to the cops?" Seiji asked.

"No, that would be too easy on you." Nabiki smiled a grim smile "You messed with me and now you're going to pay. I'm going to take your life away from you Seiji, all of it. No more scholarship, no more baseball in fact when I'm done with you even your parents won't want anything to do with you."

"Now come on Tendo-san," Seiji was practically pleading "Look, turn me in, I'll do my time like a good boy. I'm sorry about what I did to Ranma."

"I don't believe you Takada, you're a gutless coward who will run the first chance you get." Nabiki snarled "No, I'm taking you down now while I have the chance. You think Ranma's curse was so much fun, I hope you'll enjoy the curse I've picked out for you."

With a wave of her hand, the green haired Amazon splashed to contents of her bottle across a startled Seiji who barely had time to blink as he began to shrink and change forms.

Nabiki chuckled dryly as she grabbed the now transformed Seiji by the scruff of his neck "I always said you were a rat Seiji, now you are one for real. That was water from the Spring of the Drowned Rat. Of course hot water will let you change back to normal for a while but good luck getting some, rats don't have thumbs. Enjoy your new life Seiji."

Nabiki gave Seiji a slight toss as she turned to walk away "Come on girls, we're done here. You know, I've never noticed how many cats are in this area before."

With several chuckles Nabiki and the Amazons left the area and headed back to the Cat Café to meet up with Elder Cologne and the other Amazons.

The Present (Three weeks later) Gathering Shards

Kasumi gathered the last of the covered dishes and packed them into the basket sitting on the kitchen table preparing to take them to the hospital so that Auntie Saotome would have something to eat while she sat with Ranma.

Kasumi's thoughts traveled back over the last few weeks and the changes they brought.

Ranma was awake now but still kept heavily medicated not only for the pain but to help keep her calm. She did not take the news of her gender change very well at all and it was perhaps fortunate after all that her limbs were in casts as there was no doubt that she would have tried something drastic. They had yet to tell her that she could no longer fight due to her rebuilt face.

Nodoka was spending as much time with Ranma as possible, trying to be there in case her child needed her. And though she was alright with her child's current gender Kasumi knew that she still mourned the loss of her manly son.

Genma was still missing and no word had been heard from him.

Cologne had in fact adopted both Ranma and Nodoka into her clan as she promised and she too spent as much time with Ranma as her schedule would allow, telling Ranma all about her village and telling her tales from Amazon lore, anything to help distract Ranma from her current situation.

Nabiki had become some what more withdrawn as she blamed herself for Ranma's attack as she was the one who talked him into going to the party in the first place. She still ran her scams and betting pools though.

With a sigh, Kasumi hefted her basket and headed for the bus stop. Things were changing now and only time would tell if the changes were for good or bad.

The End


End file.
